1. Salvador Illa knows how to make headlines. He has the gift of coining phrases that, spoken with the conviction of an austere Catholic, gain credibility. In the disgusting case of the 12-year-old girl raped and sexually exploited for two years while she was a minor under the guardianship of the Generalitat (Catalan government), President Illa has promised to "go to the end" of the investigation. The new Minister of Social Rights, Mònica Martínez Bravo, has also guaranteed that they will go "to the end" to clarify what was happening at the DGAIA (General Directorate for Child and Adolescent Care). How is it possible that crimes like this were committed and no alarm bells went off? And, when the case became known—apparently due to the complaint of a guest who raped the minor—why did he try to cover it up and silence it with the old-fashioned methods? Dirty laundry is washed at home, perhaps? But this wasn't just dirty laundry. Yesterday, in Marta Rodríguez's excellent report in ARA, a witness stated, speaking of the girls residing in DGAIA centers, that "sexual relations with adult men in exchange for gifts or money are our daily bread." It's incredible. Controls and protocols are failing here, in a DGAIA that has already been in the newspapers too many times in the last twenty years. Justice is already taking action against the mastermind behind this case—for whom the Prosecutor's Office is seeking 107 years in prison—and against the 16 pedophiles investigated for sexual assault of the same minor in care. Perhaps "going all the way" also means that the politicians who have allowed all this, through incompetence or poor oversight, will also be held accountable to whomever is necessary. Let's hope so. For the time being, while the vast majority of social workers and educators associated with the DGAIA are doing commendable work, the volume (5,200 minors in care living in centers) and the lack of tools for such sensitive material keep us from achieving optimal management. Going all the way also forces us to rethink how to address a very complex reality in a humane, feasible, and effective way. Doing things as we have been doing, or patching things up, is clearly not working.
2. At the presentation of the National Pact for the Language, held at the headquarters of the Institute of Catalan Studies, President Illa once again used the phrase of the day: "To guarantee the future of Catalan, we have the duty to take the Pact from paper to the streets." The formulation not only sounds good, but also because of the rhyme (which wouldn't work in Spanish, "from paper on the street"), but rather reaching everyone is the necessary path that this Pact must take if it wants to achieve 100,000 more Catalan speakers per year, for six years. We must move from theory to practice to achieve this minimum objective and reverse the progressive residualization of our language. Together with the CUP, they have worked on the pact and they have not understood it.
3. With BBVA's takeover bid for Banc Sabadell, Salvador Illa has once again, quietly, uttered one of his phrases he throws around casually, so that political analysts can interpret him. "I do more than I say, but I do," Isla said. Bank mergers must be another evil of those who don't want to make a fuss. But Catalonia and its economy have too much at stake for the president to play his cards under the table, with the discreet diplomacy he appeals to. Bad, the things that can't be explained to the citizens. The independence of Banc Sabadell should have been guaranteed days ago with a call from Isla to Pedro Sánchez to say, simply, "This, Pedro, don't touch it." This BBVA romance has been going on for many months. The game should have ended much earlier if we had a president who would go all the way, and not just boast.
