"The Covid fund is finished, but the pandemic isn't finished." The Catalan president, Pere Aragonès, appeared today at the Generalitat palace, hours after his government had announced the new restrictions it has adopted to combat the increase in coronavirus cases, and affirmed that at tomorrow's meeting of autonomous presidents with the Spanish PM, he will demand that the other territories impose similar restrictions, and will ask the Spanish executive to maintain Covid funding to respond to the pandemic. "It is absolutely essential to have these resources," said Aragonès.
The president appeared this Tuesday at the end of the usual post-cabinet meeting press conference and warned that the pandemic indicators "are soaring", that "standing idly by would be neither coherent nor responsible", that ignoring this situation would have been a denial of the government's responsibilities to the Catalan public. He spoke of measures that were tough and painful, but also essential, necessary, reasonable and unavoidable and warned that the government could not wait until Wednesday, when Spanish regional leaders will meet with prime minister Pedro Sánchez.
There was no self-criticism in the president's speech over the government's imposition of restrictions when just last Saturday, mass activities took place in Barcelona without any problems, such as a mass demonstration, a major concert at the Palau Sant Jordi and the Catalan Socialist Party congress. Every time Aragonès was asked about the measures, he asserted his conviction that they did not come too late - and that in fact Catalonia is the first territory in the Spanish state to adopt them, that it has acted "when it had to", based on expert reports. "Until last week, we were not expecting to take action and, at most, to do so after this holiday period," he said, adding that the government received its expert report on Sunday afternoon.
Conference of presidents
Faced with this situation, he stressed the need for the state to provide resources, something he described as "essential". "It's no longer just a matter of strengthening the health system, we need it to deal with this wave, to help the sectors that need to reduce their activity," he warned, referring to specific proposals such as assistance to families forced to stay in quarantine due to the contagion of a child.
During his press appearance he called for the maximum commitment for all the institutions and announced that tomorrow he will ask the conference of presidents for all the rest of Spain's autonomous communities to adopt comparable measures to guarantee the effectiveness of the restrictions in Catalonia at a time of great territorial mobility.
However, he acknowledged the difficulties that this decision represents for many sectors, in particular the nightlife and hospitality sectors, and assured that his government will compensate the measures with resources to support the social and economic sectors affected. In this respect, he explained that he has asked his economy ministry to make the necessary funds available. "We have done it in every wave and we will do it again now," he said. He explained that the government "is working to design and implement the measures as soon as possible", but also repeatedly reiterated that "these actions will not be efficient without the necessary resources from the state".
He warned that, despite the vaccines, the population is still very vulnerable and that the measures promoted by the Catalan government are intended to "reduce social interaction and mobility, to preserve health and protect the health system. As well as reduction of gathering sizes, bar and restaurant occupancy levels at 50%, the government's proposal also includes a measure not included in the experts' proposals: a night-time curfew from 1am to 6am. The president argued for all these measures due to the need to restrict both indoor activities and large outdoor agglomerations in order to prevent the spread of the pandemic and the collapse of the health system.
In the main image, the Catalan president, Pere Aragonès during his appearance at the Palau de la Generalitat / Europa Press