A week with Illa on sick leave: how has the Government functioned?

BarcelonaSince he was admitted to the hospitalWith the prospect of being out of action for several weeks, President Salvador Illa instructed his cabinet members to ensure his absence is felt "as little as possible" in the day-to-day operations of the Catalan government. The Minister of the Presidency, Albert Dalmau (Barcelona, ​​1990), was tasked with leading the Catalan executive during his convalescence. Isla's strongman in the Government who has carved out a niche for himself in the legislature's key negotiations, from financing to the transfer of the commuter rail network. A regular interlocutor for ERC and Comuns on the issues the Catalan government has open, Dalmau's aides describe him as someone accustomed to a work pace comparable to that of Illa, who recruited him for frontline politics after seeing him work behind the scenes at City Hall, as Collboni's right-hand man. How is the government functioning with Dalmau at the helm, while the president continues his recovery at Vall d'Hebron Hospital? of the pubic osteomyelitis that he suffers?

The storm and the resulting train mobility crisis, managed by Dalmau, the Minister of Territory, Silvia Paneque, and the Minister of the Interior, Núria Parlon, have been the focus of the Catalan Government's efforts over the past twelve days, since Isla was admitted to the hospital on January 17. The president has been monitoring the situation from the hospital, where he has received visits from Dalmau, with whom he is in constant contact. The Catalan government first had to deal with train drivers refusing to return to work. and denied the restoration of service that had been announced the previous night And then, how Renfe defied orders when the Generalitat (Catalan government) stopped the service because its "safety" could not be guaranteed. As the days passed, the government went from engaging in "dialogue" with Renfe and Adif (the Spanish railway infrastructure manager) to demanding accountability, having witnessed firsthand the lack of coordination and understanding between the two companies. The real test for Dalmau came this Wednesday, when he had to face criticism from the opposition and calls for the resignation of Paneque, with whom he has worked closely on managing relations with Renfe, Adif, and user groups. The regional minister led the question period in Isla's place, but also appeared at his own request to answer for the train chaos, where he extended an olive branch to the political groups. for a "national pact" to revamp the service, with increased investment, new trains, and a transfer that would allow "the trains to be managed from Catalonia."

As is his custom, Dalmau arrived at the Parliament at 7:30 a.m. to finalize a speech he had worked on with his team, aiming for a calm and measured tone, according to sources at the Ministry. As part of his institutional role standing in for the President, last week Dalmau visited the victims of the Gelida train accident at the hospital and called the mother of the Seville-born train driver killed in the accident to offer his condolences on behalf of the Generalitat.

Maintaining "discretion"

Although the focus was on Dalmau this Wednesday, the directive from the Presidency is to maintain "discretion in appearances": officially, no one is referring to him as acting president, nor have any photographs of the executive council meeting without Isla been released by the Generalitat, as is customary every Tuesday. Before the president's illness, Dalmau had already chaired two executive council meetings: he did so when Isla traveled to Japan in May, and again in Mexico between November and December. The week following the trip to the Latin American country was not a peaceful one either: it was then that the outbreak of African swine fever erupted. which the president initially followed from Mexico with teleconference meetingsHowever, the regulations do not provide for remote participation in the executive council.

Isla's hospitalization caught most of the ministers off guard, who were kept in the dark for the first few hours in the Vall d'Hebron ICU. Beyond from the president's inner circleThe only two members of the Balearic Government present in the room on Sunday when the medical team reported on his condition were Dalmau and the Minister of Health, Dr. Olga Pané. Although there has been no official statement on the president's health in recent days, the Government maintains that he continues to recover and they expect to provide an update on Friday. It was widely assumed at the Palau de la Generalitat (the seat of the Balearic Government) that Dalmau would be chosen to fill in for Isla during his convalescence. "He is the Minister of the Presidency. He already coordinates the entire Government," Government sources explained. Meanwhile, the president's schedule has been distributed among the various ministers.