Antoni Bassas's analysis: 'Commuter trains and the excuse of rain'

President Illa remains hospitalized and, therefore, today it was the Minister of the Presidency, Albert Dalmau, who answered the questions put to the president in the control session.

Everyone has asked him about the chaos at Renfe and Adif in the commuter rail system, but Dalmau has responded to every question with the same line: "There is no other way, we cannot deviate even an inch." The solution is a joint venture between the State and the Generalitat (Catalan government), not Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat (Catalan Railways) and certainly not independence: investment in tracks and trains, and patience.

As you know, the service is far from normal. Nothing resembling normality will be back until Monday. In fact, when it's reported early in the morning on days like today that the Cercanías commuter trains are running, they mean that the Renfe buses are on time.

Look at that map Adif provided yesterday: those red dots are the thirty points that need urgent action because problems have been detected. The current trend is to justify this by saying that it rained a lot last week, and that, generally, December and January have been well above the historical average. Minister Puente said this, and Councilor Dalmau repeated it this morning. Granted, it rained a lot, but it also rained on the Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat (Catalan Railways) and they continued operating. Rain causes problems on open-air tracks, but everyone knows that the rain was just the icing on the cake, and the cake is underinvestment and lack of maintenance.

By the way, I asked here yesterday if they would be attending a protest against the commuter rail chaos, but I was wrong because there will be two demonstrations: one by the user platforms and the other by the ANC. In Catalonia, unity disappeared from the dictionary a long time ago (and that's why we're in this mess).

Meanwhile, in Madrid, three important news items: The regularization of half a million immigrants has been approved, of whom an estimated 150,000 live in Catalonia. These will be those who can prove that they had lived there continuously for at least the previous five months as of December 31st of last year.

They will be able to work, but this doesn't mean they will have the right to vote or citizenship immediately. Sánchez approved it by royal decree; he didn't dare take it to Congress. Regularizations like this have been carried out by every president, from Felipe González and Aznar to Zapatero and Rajoy, and it's curious because it has been simultaneously applauded by Podemos, employers' associations, and the Catholic Church, and opposed by Vox and the PP. Why is Sánchez doing this? To project an inclusive image at a time when Trump sent his police to arrest immigrants at their homes (remember that the New York Times gave it extensive coverage yesterday), to unsettle the PP in the face of Vox, and because this way Podemos lifts its veto on transferring immigration to the Generalitat, as agreed by the PSOE and Junts. Podemos had said that without regularization, there would be no discussion of it. Well, now there will be regularization, but Podemos has already stated that it will ensure the law transferring powers to the Generalitat is "free of racism." Obviously, there was nothing racist about the PSOE-Junts pact, except that making Catalan as essential as Castilian is racist, because in this matter of transferring immigration powers to the Generalitat, Irene Montero has made it clear that the closest thing to a right-wing Spaniard is a left-wing Spaniard.

Good morning.