The Catalan government hopes that tomorrow morning, at the scheduled conference of presidents, at which the consequences of the coronavirus pandemic will be addressed, president Quim Torra will get an answer about the economic measures he requested the Spanish government to implement.
This has been requested this Saturday by spokeswoman and chief of the Catalan cabinet, Mertixell Budó, when she regretted having learned of the extension of the state of alarm though the media. "We have always defended that all measures be taken", she stressed, but doubted that the extension would include prolonging the confinement of the population. "We are still not sure about this. This first decision does not include total lockdown, which is in force until April 9th" she warned at a press conference held on Saturday.
The economic measures requested by the Catalan government
Torra has been insisting for weeks that this crisis must be paid for by the administrations, and not by individuals or companies, and warns that if the necessary decisions are not taken, the healthcare crisis will become a "catastrophic" economic and social crisis. Firstly, he asks the Spanish government to give security and confidence to workers and the self-employed by ensuring a universal basic income. He also wants to provide cash to companies with a total tax moratorium and the suspension of the social security payments of the self-employed.
According to Budó, president Torra has not yet received a response on these economic and social measures.