The best 10 quotes of the President of the Catalan Generalitat government in the General Policy Debate in Parliament

In his opening speech in the General Policy Debate at the Parliament of Catalonia, the President of the Catalan Generalitat government, Pere Aragonès, spelled out the work of the Government to date, particularly highlighting measures that affect the defence of the Catalan language; the reinforcement of public services, employment, housing and industry; the energy transition; women’s rights; and mental health. He also devoted a large part of his speech to the political conflict between Catalonia and the Spanish state and laid out the need to enter a new phase of the negotiation that addresses the core of the political conflict, which is about sovereignty, and how to resolve the conflict democratically.

1. In the coming months, I hope to be able to welcome President Puigdemont, Marta Rovira and the rest of the exiles to the Palau de la Generalitat, as I did with the political prisoners. With amnesty on the way, it is time to enter a new phase of negotiation that addresses the core of the political conflict. In the coming Spanish legislature, an agreement must be reached on the conditions under which Catalonia must be able to decide on its future.
2. Catalonia is about to reach the 8-million mark, the most diverse Catalonia ever. Today, the idea of a civic nation (the nation-project) must gain strength, in opposition to Spanish ultra-nationalism (that of the nation-imposition) that was manifest in Madrid on Sunday. The Catalonia of 8 million may be envisaged above all by the collective will of the citizens to jointly build a shared future. The nation is built looking to the future, not into the past.
3. We must redouble our efforts so that the Catalan language regains its presence in all spheres of society and moves towards full normalization. We are finalizing a plan to guarantee that everyone may be attended to in Catalan in Catalonia’s health service; we have encouraged the presence of films and series dubbed in Catalan on the major streaming platforms; we have bolstered the Corporació Catalana de Mitjans Audiovisuals, the public Catalan Audiovisual Media Corporation; and during the present political year, the National Pact for the Language must see the light. At a cultural level, we will also transform the “Escena 25” platform by extending it to cover young people up to 30 years of age.
4. In the area of Social Transformation, we are at record employment figures with 3.75 million social security affiliates; there had never been so many doctors, so many teachers and so many police officers serving the citizens of Catalonia; and never before had the Generalitat had such an ambitious housing policy. In the Green Transformation, we already have 1,500 MW in clean energy production authorized in Catalonia, and we will end the legislature having authorized over 3,000 MW. At the same time, we are bankrolling €2.4 billion in preparing the country for droughts like the one we are going through, a record investment never made before.
5. We mean to remove housing from the pure logic of the market in order to protect the right to housing. We have been pioneers in regulating rent caps by law; and until 2026 we will make 10,000 new social-rent flats available, an 18% increase over the current stock. We will continue along this line and the next step must be to improve and intensify regulation on housing for tourists, and to regulate seasonal leases to ensure that rent containment policies can be applied.