Agencies, Barcelona
06/30/2019 18:17 Updated to 07/01/2019 08:34
The new president of Societat Civil Catalana (SCC), Fernando Sánchez Costa, has defended that “some State structures should have their headquarters in Barcelona” and, in this sense, has proposed that the Senate and some ministries move to the Catalan capital. In an interview with Efe, Sánchez Costa has argued that “a very good way of structuring Spain would be for some of the main state institutions to have their headquarters in Barcelona” and not in Madrid, so that “we would not always be complaining about what is happening there, but we would also be leaders of the common project”.
“Why not place the Ministry of Economy or the Ministry of Development in Barcelona? It is about reinforcing the internal cohesion of Spain and that Spain is led from here instead of wanting to break it”, he underlined. At the same time that he has opted for “reforming Spain”, to be “a common home in which we all feel at ease”, Sánchez Costa has remarked that “Catalonia also has to reform and make an effort of pluralism”.
Double recognition
Therefore, he has suggested moving towards a “double recognition”, which consists of “the State deepening the recognition of its plurality, its richness and its cultural mosaic reality”, while at the same time Catalonia “recognizes its internal diversity”.
Fernando Sánchez Costa, who was a member of the PPC in the Parliament between 2012 and 2017, was elected this week as the new president of the Catalan Civil Society, replacing Josep Ramon Bosch. In this new stage, he explained, the entity faces “three essential challenges”: broadening its social base, “continue to defend firmly the non-independent Catalan” and formulate a “proactive and persuasive discourse”.
Expand the base
On the first objective, he has specified that his purpose is to “double” the number of partners in the next six months, make the entity evolve towards a “model of more participation, more empowerment and prominence” of its partners, “democratizing” certain decisions as the election of territorial boards and “strengthening the mechanisms of communication and transparency”.
“We want to invite all Catalans again to join the project of Spain, to lead the future Spain”, said Sanchez Costa, pointing out that “for this we must not give up at all to the own feeling of Catalanism”. “They are not incompatible feelings, our way of being Spanish is to be very Catalan, we do not have to de-catalanize ourselves in order to to be more Spanish”, he insisted.
On his election as president of SCC, he stressed that he has not been chosen “at the proposal of the PP, but by a transversal agreement” between the different sensitivities of the entity.
If some mistakes have been made, it was not because of ill will, but because of being “a bit amateurish”
Regarding his organizational plans as the head of SCC, he has committed himself to developing a “very professional management of the management team, with a very clear distribution of areas and a very fluid communication between the areas”. These “mechanisms of professionalization of the management of the entity” should contribute, in his opinion, to avoid those “misunderstandings and frictions” which have been present within SCC in recent years, in which have occurred episodes of internal instability and changes in the presidency.
According to Sánchez Costa, “if some mistakes were made, it was not due to bad intentions”, but because they were “a bit amateurish”. Looking ahead to the next times, he has promised to offer “full transparency” with the accounts of the entity, “that will be public” through the web.
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