The Official Gazette of the Generalitat of Catalonia has made it official this Monday: Jaume Giró is no longer Catalan minister of Economy and Finance. Despite his absolutely convinced view that his party, Together for Catalonia (Junts), was better off remaining in the coalition government, the results of the Junts consultation of members disrupted his plans and forced Giró to resign from his department. And he did so with a letter that he sent to all positions, in which he expressed his gratitude for the trust, the privilege and the satisfaction of having been at the head of his ministry for nearly a year and a half. "It has been an honour, because I cannot conceive of a greater dignity than that of being able to serve the country you love," begins the letter, to which the ACN agency has had access. "Never in my entire professional life have I worked with a group of people as well-prepared, as committed and as generous as you," he adds.
But, beyond the words addressed to all those he worked alongside, Giró also directs some lines of praise for the Catalan administration. "The Generalitat is a well-oiled machine, a state structure capable of providing continuity to the public service, whatever the magnitude of the challenges that may be presented to us in the future", he celebrates. "Having been able to see, first hand, the power of our institutions, makes me renew my confidence that Catalonia can achieve everything it sets out to do."
Calls to Calviño and Montero
Not only that. The former head of the economy ministry also personally called his Spanish counterparts to share some last words and explain the reasons for his departure from the Catalan government. Thus, Giró said goodbye to the Spanish economy minister, Nadia Calviño, and her colleague in the treasury department, María Jesús Montero. In fact, the minister is leaving his department in Barcelona in the final run-up to the presentation of next year's budget, which Giró has been working on intensively in recent weeks, as well as negotiating with the PSC and the Comuns. His departure does not respond to his personal will, as he has demonstrated on numerous occasions his desire to help Catalonia from within the executive. Only last week, he warned his party colleagues that having to do what you least like is common in politics, adding that "the motor that will always move things forward, here and anywhere in the world, is the government".
Jaume Giró concludes his missive with a few words addressed to the person who will replace him from now on. "I leave the department knowing that whoever will have to replace me will have it as easy as I had it," he concludes. The new head of the Economy and Finance ministry will be Natàlia Mas, who already worked in this department when Oriol Junqueras was the minister, as secretary of Economy. Now she will be the first woman at the head of the Catalan ministry and will have the challenge of negotiating and trying to push forward the budget that Giró had already been working on.