WEDNESDAY, 22/04/2020
The president of the Barcelona Chamber of Commerce, Joan Canadell, has assured on Wednesday that an independent Catalonia would have saved thousands of lives in the coronavirus crisis, and stated that “Spain is unemployment and death, and Catalonia life and future”.
In a Twitter note, in Spanish language, Canadell he has contrasted the Greek strategy with that of the Spanish Government and affirms that we should have listened to the president of the Generalitat, Quim Torra, and decreed confinement two weeks earlier, which would have led to fewer victims of Covid-19.
“To listen to Quim Torra would have meant that we were a hundred people in contagion and death like in Greece. An independent Catalonia would have saved thousands of lives… Spain is unemployment and death. Catalonia life and future,” he has pointed to using in his note a graph of a physicist called Yaneer Bar-Yam. 
After publishing it, and after checking the uproar of his words, the president of the Barcelona Chamber of Commerce wanted to nuance his words as he felt that they could have misinterpreted, according to his opinion.
In this regard, the Spokeswoman of Catalan Government, Meritxell Budó, insisted on Wednesday that an independent Catalonia would have managed the crisis of the coronavirus,” although she has pointed out: “I have not said that Spain kills us, and I would save myself much from making such an affirmation ever”.
Criticisms
Criticism for the tweet has reached Canadell from the independence sector and also from the left and Ciudadanos. Thus, JxCat’s MP in Congress Sergi Miquel replied: “If I felt it necessary to have the chambers of commerce aligned with the right of self-determination it was not precisely to read things like this,” he said. “I find it distressing and out of place,” said former PDeCAT general coordinator Marta Pascal.
Also the first deputy mayor of Barcelona City Council and president of the PSC in the Catalan capital, Jaume Collboni, has censored the commentary of social networks. “Absolutely pitiful! Statements like these are offensive, unbecoming of a president of the Cambra de Comerce de Barcelona. Words that do not represent Barcelona or the plurality of its economic fabric. We demand a correction and apology,” he stressed.
More protests
Collboni’s reaction has not convinced the president of the Citizens group at Barcelona City Council, Luz Guilarte, who has demanded Canadell’s “immediate resignation”. “Rectification? Excuse me? Ada Colau, what else does it take for his government to demand the immediate resignation of those who repeatedly find out to be unable to represent anything but their own hatred and moral misery?” said Guilarte.
The president of the Unidas Podemos group in Congress, Jaume Asens, has denounced Canadell’s words. “In the face of the politicization of the dead in identity key, solidarity and fraternity between peoples must be claimed more than ever.”
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