As many Catalans remember all too well, last Sunday, election day, a very serious incident occurred: a copper cable theft left the entire Rodalies service out of service. There was absolute chaos on an infrastructure, that of Catalonia's suburban and local rail services, that Catalonia should have been managing fully itself for years and that the different Spanish governments haggle about over and over again, and even claim they are going to hand over the entire service, and we wait to see what this ends up meaning. Among the many shameful aspects of this latest crisis in Rodalies set off by cable theft, there is this swaggering attitude of the Spanish transport minister, Óscar Puente, looking to brush off any responsibility and pass it on to the Mossos d'Esquadra police, whom he accused of being ineffective. The Catalan and Spanish governments became embroiled in a fight that led to an institutional clash, in which, as we know from experience, the Catalans have little to gain in the face of the relentless machinery and power of Spanish, applying its steamroller effect.
Obviously, Puente did not tell the truth and, this Thursday, the court in the metropolitan municipality of Cerdanyola del Vallès, which received the complaint from the Adif rail infrastructure firm, said that it would not investigate and that it believed what the Mossos had said. The cable cut had been made in Barcelona, and therefore it is up to a court in the Catalan capital to take over the investigation of this theft. By the way, the amount stolen was not, as Adif said, a length of 40 metres but rather 120. Nor were there any signs of sabotage, as the ministry maintained in a story that is now being dismantled. Given the seriousness of the permanent ill-treatment of an infrastructure that is basic for Catalans, it would be good that in the negotiations being opened to form a new government after the election - despite the uncertain outcome and possible new election - if there could be a common thread focusing on something that Catalonia must not continue to accept as a wrong that cannot be righted.
The shared agenda for Catalonia should include infrastructure; financing; immigration and the rural world; and language and education
It should be something very close to a shared agenda of political centrality, since what the last Catalan elections have made clear is that the parties giving a flat "no" and blocking progress have been swept away in those places where the public demands answers. You just have to look at what has happened in Tarragona with the the Hard Rock complex, in Lleida affected by the planned Winter Games in the Pyrenees or in Barcelona with the expansion of the El Prat airport. Some vetoes should be lifted because the public has expressed itself mostly in the same direction. This agenda should cover, at least, four major areas that are transversal and country-wide: infrastructure; financing; immigration and rural world problems; and language and education. In all four, there should be a major agreement to take a major step and completely re-write the rules of the game.
In part, these issues go together because the new autonomous government financing model for Catalonia - no matter whether it is called 'specific', 'singular' or 'personalized' - must be the foundation on which everything else depends. It is not a question of taking a new step, but of putting an end to the current situation and demanding a financing model that brings us closer to that of the Basques, whatever name it has. It's time, and it shouldn't be given up. This way of using political power must lead to control of the infrastructures and a radical modification of the investment sums allocated in Spanish government budgets. Any amount that appears in the annual public allocations and is not actually spent must be reimbursed to the Generalitat so that it can be added to the budget. Immigration must enter the agenda, as it has entered the countries around us. Nothing better than the analysis being made in Catalonia and the proposals put together from here being complemented by the control of the actual mechanisms so that action can be taken in the country of the present and with the needs of now.
Until we understand the urgency in all these areas, Catalonia will not make the leap forward it needs and for which it can wait no longer. And yes, there are two candidates to lead the government who have expressed their disposition and have legitimacy to do so: Salvador Illa and Carles Puigdemont. It will be a problem of majorities and alliances so that we are not forced into new elections.