Dalmau, Salvador Illa's strongman in the Government

BarcelonaThe collaborators of the Minister of the Presidency, Albert Dalmau, hear him say a phrase of his own making practically every day: "Eye on strategy, foot on operations." It's the philosophy that sums up the changes Dalmau is trying to implement in the Catalan administration after a decade in which, according to the PSC, the pro-independence governments were distracted by the Process and neglected public services. Revving up the Catalan government's performance is one of the tasks he received from President Salvador Illa, who has also left the coordination of the government's departments (and their communications) in the hands of the Minister of the Presidency. In all of this, Minister Dalmau is applying the foundations of a management style he already deployed in Barcelona, ​​where he served as municipal manager until the summer after serving as Jaume Collboni's right-hand man.

To begin with, Dalmau has already activated a committee of experts to reform the administration to reduce bureaucracy, eliminate mandatory appointments, and professionalize top public sector executives so they are not dependent on the political affiliation of the current government. But beyond the PSC's reformist horizon, which has not yet materialized, several sources agree in emphasizing that since becoming President, the minister has been tightening the screws on an administration that the Socialists consider to be still running at half speed. The objective is for the Government to be able to show results after placing public management at the center of its narrative. "The President tasked us with making management the symbol and emblem of this Government," the minister himself summarizes in the ARA (Argentine National Assembly). They face the challenge of doing so in the minority and without having managed to approve a budget: they govern with the 2023 budget, bequeathed to them by Pere Aragonès's executive.

A First Enemy

The first step was to intensify internal coordination within the government, with more than twenty interdepartmental committees under the supervision of the Presidency. The Ministry's top leadership has implemented new systems of management indicators and budgetary control. Municipal sources consulted by ARA confirm that this logic reflects the one Dalmau already followed in Barcelona, ​​where strict financial controls have been applied since 1992 to guarantee the City Council's investment and spending capacity. "It's very much in the DNA of Barcelona City Council, which is Albert's school," they point out. The same sources emphasize that in the council, Dalmau also placed great emphasis on ensuring that government departments were not siloed and that one of his great obsessions was that leaders be on the ground, not in the office.

This approach has already earned the Generalitat its first enemy: The deputy directors of the Generalitat, who have revolted against the decision to eliminate their teleworking to ensure contact with the teams and their movement throughout the region. Specifically, Dalmau has also given orders to strengthen the presence of the teams in the region to try to explain the Government's projects beyond just the Barcelona context. In the case of the single plan for public works and services in Catalonia, he has done so with meetings in the regional government delegations with almost 70% of the mayors of Catalonia. Territori plans to hold a similar round of meetings with mayors and business leaders on the plan to mobilize public land to build 50,000 subsidized apartments. Furthermore, the ministers have a policy of holding a working session with the delegates before making their projects public, with the idea that if anyone detects any territorial conflict, they should report it.

Public-Private Partnership

To ensure that the Generalitat's gears are well-oiled, the Socialists are aware that they need the Generalitat staff to embrace Illa's government plan, focused on the economic revolution, to place Catalonia back at the forefront of the Spanish economyThis is the objective with which the executive has organized for the first time a series of executive meetings—the first in December and the second in March—so that some 270 senior officials who normally do not have contact with each other can meet and hear from the general secretaries what their priorities are. At the latter, held behind closed doors, the commissioner for the transfer of commuter rail services, Pere Macias, spoke to inform everyone about what is being done with the transfer of commuter rail services, which has already cost Paneque a fortune. a request for resignation supported by the majority of the ParliamentThe message was clear: the problem with commuter rail isn't just a regional problem, but a problem for the entire government. And the entire government must be involved in the solution.

Public-private collaboration is another of the axes that Dalmau wants to promote from the Presidency, after having been personally involved in the controversial Copa América and in the Barcelona Green Deal. Now he wants to bring it to the heart of the Catalan government, with an open line of collaboration for the private sector to submit proposals to contribute to the modernization of the Generalitat (Catalan Government). With this goal in mind, he has brought part of the team that accompanied him on his journey to Barcelona to the regional ministry, starting with his chief of staff, María Carmen Fernández González, his second-in-command at City Hall, and also Quico Santiago, formerly part of the Barcelona City Council's communications team and now Director of Communications for the Presidency. David Asparó, a press officer in Barcelona, ​​has also followed Dalmau to the Generalitat (Catalan Government). In fact, the appointment of city council officials was not without controversy, as Dalmau hired the mayor's sister, Iolanda Collboni, as an advisor on strategic projects. However, the minister's team isn't just from Barcelona: there are PSC signings from all over the region, from Reus to Baix Llobregat, passing through Hospitalet, Tremp, Maresme, and the Girona regions.