15/03/2020
Catalan President Quim Torra and some members of his government are exhibiting a clear hierarchy of values: their ideology and partisan interests seem to be more important than the health and lives of people. The state of alarm approved by the Spanish government has nothing to do with article 155 of the Constitution or with a breach of jurisdiction. It is a transitory instrument envisaged in the ordinance to deal with extraordinary situations just like the one we are now facing and which must allow for the adoption and implementation of the measures needed to combat the pandemic, so that there is no room for Competence fights, jealousy between administrations, let alone the use of criticism and claims completely out of place. Coronavirus health crisis emergencies do not support irresponsibility or sectarianism. We need the highest unity and loyalty between institutions.
What does not make sense is that the Catalan government has tried to take advantage of the hours before the application of the alarm status to try to fictionalize a control of the entrances and exits within the Catalan territory, thus raising a kind of false borders with the excuse of health controls and with the sole purpose of imposing gestures of sovereignty that call for the radicalized foundations of independence. Torra’s confidence in Catalonia is the euphemism behind which the attempt to reverse the coronavirus crisis is hidden to regain a much-weakened independence momentum. An unprecedented disloyalty with the Catalan population as a whole and with the rest of Spain. Nothing has to do with the closing of ports, airports and border crossings that Torra demands from the Sanchez government with their house confinement which forces them to fight the spread of the disease.
Independentist media and networks close to the Government have taken advantage of the frivolous attitudes of the people of Madrid to try to unite the worst xenophobic instincts among public opinion. As is often the case, our humpbackers do not see their hump. If it is true that thousands of Madrilenians have moved to the Valencian and Murcia coasts with more holiday spirit than confinement, the same has happened to thousands of Catalans relocated to their second homes on the Costa Brava, and in the Pyrenees , an attitude that has been censured by the inhabitants of these territories as irresponsible and of lack of solidarity. It would have been better if the Catalan Government had, like the Murcia government, dedicated itself to limiting or even confining the populations arrived at the second residences where the regional hospital network could suddenly load and out of statistical controls.
The interest of the Catalans, the health and life of all, the very future of Catalonia, demands a solidarity and cooperative attitude of all the administrations, from the city councils to the Central Government and the European Union when it decides that this is a problem that with no passport as President Macron says. There is no doubt about the powers, which are perfectly delimited by the Constitution, but they must be managed with care and prudence from the sole command and always with sufficient consultations and proper coordination with the Governments and the the autonomies. Nor is there any doubt that there is no desire to re-centralize as President Torra has denounced but to be effective. Now all the efforts of citizens and administrations need to focus on managing such an exceptional and dangerous situation. The irresponsible better to step on the side. Differential facts do not fit in the management of coronavirus crisis.
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