With almost as many uncertainties on the table as there are issues to be resolved as soon as possible, the Catalan government is preparing for a real de-escalation of coronavirus measures from Monday 9th May, which will be the first day that people will be able to feel a degree of emergence from the tunnel of so many months of sacrifice and so many lost lives. The vaccines have opened the door to a new stage that will become visible in such everyday acts as being able to go out to dinner until 11pm. The fact that the Pedro Sánchez government has ruled out an extension of the state of alarm leaves a legal limbo around the measures that the autonomous communities may end up applying and the high courts of justice of each region will become more important. Here, the Catalan High Court (TSJC) may end up having to decide many things, but it will also depend on the consensus that the Generalitat is able to reach with the opposition parties and the business sectors affected.
The goal is to reach summer with levels that are even lower than at present for the speed of infection, the number of people affected and the hospital pressure. Only under these conditions can a half-way normal July and August period be guaranteed. It is not an unattainable goal, as the speed with which the vaccination process has advanced in recent weeks has boosted optimism. This month of May will be key if supplies continue to arrive at the current rate and no new problems emerge.
The entire leisure sector is hopeful that from Monday 9th, it can turn the current situation inside out like a sock and can itself see some light on the horizon. The same goes for the restaurant industry, where people are beginning to make bookings. It is to be hoped that the Catalan government still in office will empathize with a sector that has been particularly badly treated. Less worrying about the behaviour of people, who have mostly been very responsible, and more work on creating the conditions for the different sectors to reactivate themselves as soon as possible.
If the negotiations between ERC and Junts do not derail again, towards the middle of the month the presidential candidate Pere Aragonès could ask the speaker of parliament, Laura Borràs, to call another investiture session. The third and final one. There is a lot of stitching together still to be done, starting with the structure of the new government and the distribution of ministries. ERC has already delivered a document which Junts feels give them a poor deal. Puigdemont's party puts forward something simpler - that the starting point for the negotiation should be with Junts having the government competencies that ERC had in the last legislature. But simpler does not mean, by any measure, easier. Once the strategic and programmatic issues are on track, it's time, let's be clear, to enter into the distribution of power. And that always causes irritation.