Catalan president calls for major post-Covid-19 agreement

Catalan president Quim Torra has called on the major sectors of society to come together in order to “construct” Catalonia after the health crisis. In the first parliamentary plenary session since the lockdown began, Torra announced on Friday that he would call on political parties, and social, scientific and cultural actors, as well  as universities, executives and companies, to join forces in a “disruptive” agreement to face the aftermath of Covid-19 in the country.

The head of the Catalan government aims to activate “all the talent” of Catalonia, extending his proposal to sectors outside politics and institutions. For Torra, agreements within the government and the parliament are important, but there is also a need to go “beyond that.”

Torra’s comments came as the two largest opposition parties in parliament, Ciudadanos and the Socialists, also made proposals on the same note in the plenary session. Unionist Ciudadanos leader, Lorena Roldán, put forward a “regional forum to reconstruct Catalonia” in the chamber, where government and opposition would “fight together” against the virus. As for the Socialists, its leader in Catalonia, Miquel Iceta, proposed a “Catalan pact for social and economic reconstruction.” For Iceta, this agreement should make sure that “no one is left behind.”

Torra was open to the proposals, but said that the need is to “construct” and not “reconstruct.” The plenary session, which is expected to see the 2020 budget passed in the late evening, was unprecedentedly attended by only 21 MPs due to the confinement measures, while the rest are expected to vote by proxy.