The Catalan government will have to decide on Tuesday what solution to adopt on the huge bond sums to be deposited by 34 officials, now that the report of the Court of Accounts has been made public, demanding 5.4 million euros. Among those affected are presidents Artur Mas and Carles Puigdemont, former vice president Oriol Junqueras, as well as several ex-ministers from the 2011 to 2017 period, and the money which they are asserted to have misappropriated has to do with the foreign projection of the Catalan government. The current Catalan administration's decision to cover these bonds has been taken. The precise formula on how the guarantee is formalized, the coverage and the time aspects are the details still being polished and worked on by the economy ministry, the appropriate government area.
It is, probably, the first complex decision of the new Catalan president and the government of ERC and Junts. Just look at the hubbub it has caused with, for example, the opposition PSC, which has already spoken out through its deputy first secretary, Eva Granados, of a possible risk of misuse of funds in the measure itself. It has done so without waiting to know the official decision of the Catalan government and the architecture of the guarantee it plans to provide in terms of the administration's involvement through the Catalan Institute of Finance (ICF) or the participation of a financial institution. These are far-from-insignificant details and very important to know before invoking the offence of misuse of funds and inviting the judiciary to intervene in the matter.
The experience of Catalan economy minister Jaume Giró in his previous private sector activity is a guarantee that a legal pathway will be used for the granting of the bond quantities, although a virulent reaction must also be expected from the Madrid media. Not so from the Spanish government and the PSOE, following the interview between Pedro Sánchez and Pere Aragonès in Madrid. The Socialists know as well as anybody that the Court of Accounts has acted as it has because this is a case against the Catalan independence movement and not because there is a real situation to pursue. Let's not fool ourselves: the tribunal that exonerated the PP's Ana Botella, ex-mayor of Madrid, for flagrant irregularities with apartment building sales in the capital is thoroughly bound up with this matter. And has interests in it too.
That the decision to guarantee the bond deposits coincides with the appearance of the Catalan president in the plenary session of Parliament to discuss the dejudicialization of the political conflict between Catalonia and Spain should be an opportunity to bring together a broad political majority in favour. It is not necessary to be pro-independence to consider the action of the Court of Accounts as without unprecedents, in addition to being an injustice that only seeks the civil annulment of forty people by ruining them financially.
The left-wing Comuns and even the PSC under Salvador Illa should give a chance to the Catalan government's bond plan which, in practice, is an opportunity for dialogue. The opposite is to carry on the commitment to a climate of tension and the judicialization of Catalan political life.