A new Catalan government that will be from a single party - the Catalan Republican Left (ERC) - which for now does not have enough strength on its own in Parliament. Aware of this circumstance, president Pere Aragonès has spent the weekend in his seat of government, the Palau de la Generalitat, setting up a new executive which, although politically monochromatic, includes sensibilities that go beyond the Republican Left. That is, an ex-minister of the Catalan Socialists (PSC), Quim Nadal; a former figure from the Convergència (CDC) space, Carles Campuzano; and the former Podemos general secretary in Catalonia, Gemma Ubasart, will all be included. There were seven vacancies left behind when Together for Catalonia (Junts) left the coalition administration on Friday in accordance with the votes of its members, and all positions have been filled except for the vice presidency, which has been left vacant. The new Catalan cabinet will meet this Tuesday with its new ministers, once they have taken office. It will be a government that Aragonès says he wants to be "of the Catalan consensuses of 80%" and will have absolutely gender parity, with seven men and seven women.
One of the most prominent signings is that of Quim Nadal as minister for Research and Universities. Member of the then-Catalanist sector of the PSC (from which he resigned in 2015) and a supporter of Catalan's sovereign right to decide its political future, Quim Nadal stands out for his extensive political career: he was the first mayor of Girona after the end of the Franco dictatorship (1979-2002), and then served as Catalan minister for Territorial Policy and Public Works in the two tripartite governments of the 2000s, as well as spokespeson and adviser to the Catalan presidency when president Pasqual Maragall dismissed his ERC ministers.
But Nadal is not the only historic figure that president Aragonès has brought back into government. Ha has also looked in other political spaces, as is the case of Carles Campuzano, long-time member of the dominant centre-right Convergència party, a member of the Catalan parliament for seven legislatures and a former representative of the PDeCAT in the Congress of Deputies until 2019. Campuzano will hold the portfolio of Social Rights. And the Catalan president has also successfully fished in the alternative-left Comuns pond, with the appointment of Gemma Ubasart, former general secretary of Podemos in Catalonia, who will be the new Catalan minister of Justice, Rights and Memory.
The rest of the vacancies will be occupied by names that come from within ERC and that already have experience. At the head of Economy and Finance will be Natàlia Mas, who already worked in this department as secretary of Economy when Oriol Junqueras was the minister. The Foreign Action department will be headed by former minister and current MP Meritxell Serret, who returned from exile in Brussels a year and a half ago to make herself available to the Supreme Court. MP and former mayor of Sabadell, Juli Fernández, will take the reins of Territory. And the Health portfolio will fall to Manel Balcells, the signing with the most technical profile. A doctor by training, he has developed public responsibilities in this area. Up until now he has been director of the Centre for the Integration of Medicine and Innovative Technologies in Catalonia.
Intense weekend at the governement palace
On Friday, when the internal party polls closed, the departure of Junts from the Catalan government was made official. And president Pere Aragonès did not want to waste time in forming a new Republican Left executive, a single-party cabinet with which he intends to exhaust the remaining two and a half years of the legislature. That is why the head of government went into conclave this weekend with his most trusted team to hold meetings and calls and work out all the details. In addition to conversations with economic and social agents, he also spoke to Jéssica Albiach, leader of the Comuns. Aragonès was accompanied during these hours by the director of his office, Sergi Sabrià, and the minister of the Presidency, Laura Vilagrà.
The calendar has been set out so that the new cabinet can meet properly on Tuesday. This Monday, the Catalan government gazette will publish the official termination of postings for the outgoing ministers and some staff. On Tuesday, at nine in the morning, the new holders will take office and at ten they will participate in the Government meeting, which will appoint the new general secretaries. In the afternoon portfolio transfers will take place in the respective departments.