"You have a problem and that problem is called 3%." With this phrase, Pasqual Maragall shook up Catalan politics exactly twenty years ago in a speech as president of the Generalitat from the Parliament. It was February 24, 2005 and a special plenary session was being held following the The collapse in the Carmel of Barcelona after an accident during the construction of the tunnel for metro line 5, which caused a political crisis in the country. After an episode of tension and accusations of disrespect between the president and the head of the opposition, Artur Mas, he exploded, accusing CiU of corruption in the awarding of public works contracts. How did this condition the political scene and how was it experienced in the chamber?

Seven years ago the Generalitat established a maximum salary that it still does not impose on all its employees. CiU and ERC agreed on a new law while they were negotiating the budgets according to which top managers of the public sector could not earn more than the president and ministers. Even so, the Government has maintained salaries that, year after year, contravene the guideline that appears in a 2014 law and which establishes that the full annual fixed perceptions of senior staff "in no case may be higher than those set for the position of Minister”.