The dismissal of Councilor Paneque would solve nothing, beyond fulfilling the opposition's playbook for crisis situations. She can't be faulted for not putting in long hours and failing to be visible. However, given the Sánchez-Illa alliance, she may have held back when she should have accelerated. On the other hand, it seems clear that those responsible for the chaos cannot be involved in solving it. This applies to Renfe and Adif, of course, which will continue to be involved in the new joint venture between the State and the Generalitat, Rodalies de Catalunya. But after hearing the forceful defense of her in Parliament today by the acting president, Albert Dalmau, the decision is irreversible.
And yet, the question remains: after decades of constant management failures and utter neglect of service, which overwhelmingly justify the change of hands, why can't Cercanías be transferred to Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat, with its corresponding budget allocation, of course?
The State has transferred essential services to Catalonia, such as healthcare, education, and public safety. That's no small matter. Doctors, teachers, and police officers are under the jurisdiction of the Generalitat. However, Renfe employees will not be, and Cercanías de Catalunya will be a subsidiary of Renfe.
Renfe and Adif are merely the implementing arms (when they implement at all) of the general orientation of a State that thinks in terms of radial infrastructure. The problem, therefore, is conceptual. Cercanías is, above all, local mobility. But the State doesn't care much about our mobility, if at all. It only cares about sovereignty. And it turns out that the one paying the price now is precisely the government that was supposed to address the issues that truly matter to people, so that such a power grab would never happen again.
