Thursday, March 28, 2024
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Javier Pacheco

​Political wisdom, social cohesion and the strengths of the Catalonian economy make Catalonia a great country: let's get to work

General Secretary of the CCOO Trade Union of Catalonia

The political crisis in Catalonia has precipitated one of the most critical moments in the recent democratic period of our country. Institutions, the social climate, the economy and companies have been affected.


Crisis catalana estabilidad politica


The polarization of political positions regarding the proposals for territorial configuration in recent years and more intensively in recent months, has led to a process of generalised tension that has caused the blockade of the normal functioning of administrations in Catalonia, the fracture of the fraternal coexistence between a good part of the general public and the increase of the uncertainties for the economic sectors, that have responded with an significant exit of companies of Catalonia, which might get to 3,000 by the end of the year.


In CCOO (Comisiones Obreras Trade Union) we have continuously appealed to political positions to be inclusive spaces, to the frameworks of management and political negotiation of the conflict between the central and Catalonian administrations and to the value of social cohesion of a plural and diverse society such as the Catalonian one has been, in these years of democracy have been one of the main values of our country. Preserving this is an obligation for all those who have collective responsibilities, either from the institutional, political and associative side.


Unfortunately, our leaders have not found a framework of consensus in the exercise of their responsibilities and have unilaterally gone down parallel paths, without seeking agreement with the other, ending up in a period of political confrontation that has meant:


Articulation of new legal frameworks outside the statutory and constitutional order.

Intervention of the State Government on behalf of the Catalonian Administration through an action by the Prosecutor's Office.

Disproportion of police interventions against the civilian population, provoking unjustifiable aggressions in a democracy.

Strong social mobilizations.

Detention of social leaders, attacking the fundamental rights of assembly, demonstration and free expression.

Unilateral declaration of independence.

Application of Article 155 of the Spanish Constitution to intervene in the government of the Generalitat.

Cessation of the government of the Generalitat, imprisoning some of its members. The other members are in Brussels, pending judicial resolutions.

Change of the headquarters of more than 2,700 companies.


WE ASKED THE PRESIDENT OF THE GENERALITAT TO CALL ELECTIONS


All this in addition to the strong emotional tensions that the confrontation has installed in Catalonian and Spanish society.


From our Trade Union, we have worked to avoid this situation, being aware that we did not have the solution, but rather a role to carry out as the country's leading social force.


We have responded in defence of the democratic liberties and self-government of Catalonia, committed to our principles and values. 


We have contributed to the construction of transversal spaces that maintain the transversality of a plural society with the aim of contributing to social cohesion. 


We have participated with other civil society entities in instigating initiatives for the negotiation and mediation of the administrations in conflict. 


We have made negotiation proposals in relation to a new framework of self-government in Catalonia and the necessary conditions to guarantee the Catalonian peoples' effective right to decide.


We have asked the President of the Generalitat to call early elections to ensure the maintenance of the self-government of Catalonia, to avoid the intervention of a Popular Party that has shown its authoritarian and re-centralizing drift in the deployment of its policies in these years of government.


All this has been done with the conviction that, at this moment of economic recovery, we had to force the recovery of social and employment rights to strengthen a democratic framework weakened by the crisis, which will begin to redress the inequalities and correct poverty and the precariousness This is becoming dangerously chronic in Catalonia and the rest of the State.


Political confrontation stifles the recovery of these needs and hinders the attainment of political objectives for the construction of a new relationship between Catalonia and Spain, for any of the legitimate current proposals: independence, federalism or federalism.


CATALONIA HAS THE STRENGTH TO GET OVER THE CRISIS


Catalonia has the strength to get over this crisis: a mature and plural society that has already demonstrated the capacity for inclusive fraternal coexistence that has allowed it to grow culturally, socially and economically.


In recent times, reinforcing instruments have been implemented for the orientation of a new productive model at the forefront of technological transformation, with the approval of the National Pact for Industry.


We also have a social shock absorber with the Guaranteed General Public Income to reconstruct parameters of social equality that has to help the necessary increase in income from wages with active policies of insertion and employment.


We will shortly begin the renewal of the Interprofessional Agreement of Catalonia as a useful space for consultation between economic and social agents in economic and labour policies that guide the activity of companies and their labour relations with a culture of stability, quality, creativity and online development of a model of progress for the country and its general public.


Furthermore, politics has to begin to think about the recovery of a climate of consensus that allows implementing economic policies of active investment, of progressive fiscal policies, to improve the balance of public revenues, the reinforcement of social spending and the recovery of investments the main pillars of the welfare state: education, health and social protection, among others.


Catalonia suffers the consequences of a confrontation that has to end soon, and has the strength to continue building a social and economic model that not only recover the ground lost in these months, but follow the path of significant and sustainable progress that is its economical, social and environmental hallmark.


What we need now is for Catalonians to get to work.

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