The Generalitat de Catalunya, through Fira 2000, is negotiating the purchase of the offices in the administrative district of the Zona Franca from the company AXA, where various departments have been located since 2020. Three meetings have already taken place, and very soon, in May, there will be a fourth meeting. These negotiations aim to put an end to 11 years of shadows surrounding this operation promoted in 2015 by the owner of the Zona Franca land, Fira 2000, a commercial company whose majority shareholder (53.6%) is the Generalitat and which also includes the participation of the city councils of Barcelona and L'Hospitalet and the Diputació de Barcelona.

It was one of the reasons that generated the most warnings from train drivers during the peak moments of the railway crisis: the number of trees that fell on or very close to the train tracks has forced Adif to cut down 13,680 trees between January and March. The rain and wind storms Harry and Ingrid exposed the weakness of the Catalan railway network in the face of meteorological inclemencies, and this is reflected in Adif's statistics. Of the total trees felled during this period, the infrastructure manager removed 8,380 as part of its usual vegetation control plan and an additional 5,300 trees as part of the emergency plan for the storms. The most affected area was the Maçanet-Portbou route, in the north of the country.

"In this new phase, we do not think a Catalan unity government is convenient. We must consolidate the institutions and accustom the country to the presidency of the Generalitat, but the time has come to govern". He probably did not imagine he would do so for 23 consecutive years, but the day after the 1980 elections, a triumphant Jordi Pujol was already beginning to envision that his main mission should be the creation of autonomous Catalonia. This year marks 46 years since Pujol was invested president, and it so happens that he has now been out of government for as many years as he spent at the head of the Generalitat.

Problems are piling up on the R2 Sud Rodalies line, in Garraf, since the tunnel maintenance works began two weeks ago. The alternative transport plan designed to ensure train circulation while the work continues is not working. The reason? Some of the drivers have refused to work with the new schedules defined by Renfe for this operation, which has rendered the new timetable for the trains useless, as they now run on a single track due to the works. The Spanish drivers' union Semaf alleges that the company did not comply with the established deadlines to give sufficient notice of the changes.

The Catalan government has acknowledged that 6,771 personal data records were mistakenly leaked from the grant database of a website belonging to the Ministry of Economy and Finance. As reported by TV3 and confirmed by ARA with sources within the department, this leak also explains the initial service outage and subsequent sudden disappearance of one million Generalitat grant records—an incident that caused considerable uproar and a wave of speculation. The leak came to light following the widespread use of Subvencions.cat, a public aid search engine created by Gerard Giménez, which used Generalitat data. Suddenly, records began disappearing from the site overnight. The executive generically pointed to "a technical problem", without specifying.

The latest Commuter Rail Plan, the most up-to-date, is almost 300 pages long. It's the document that details all the railway works planned from now until 2030 to improve the Catalan network: it explains what they consist of, specifies their cost, and establishes a timeline. These range from the most ambitious projects, such as the Sagrera station, the doubling of the R3 line, and the undergrounding of the Montcada station, to much smaller, faster, and even cheaper projects that can significantly improve the network's capacity. One of these smaller planned projects is in Tordera. It's classified under the section of "strategic" works programmed to "improve network capacity" and involves building a siding in front of this station, on the section of the R1 line between Blanes and Maçanet-Massanes. "This section is single-track, without sidings, for a length of more than 15 kilometers," the plan notes. "To facilitate the resolution of incidents that may disrupt the normal operation of the line, it is proposed to reinstate the siding and platform formerly in use at Tordera station," the document continues.

This Monday, March 9th, the application period opens for the state-run Youth Rental Grant (Bo Alquiler Joven), a subsidy of up to €250 per month for two years designed to facilitate access to housing for people up to 35 years old. Applications can be submitted from 9:00 AM this Monday, March 9th, until 2:00 PM on Friday, March 13th, and will be granted on a first-come, first-served basis until the allocated budget is exhausted. The Catalan government (Generalitat) is allocating more than €29 million to the program, as announced in February by the Minister of Territory, Housing, and Ecological Transition, Silvia Paneque, who urged young people to register as soon as possible with the Catalan Housing Agency (Agència de l'Hôtel de Catalunya). How to apply for the Bo Alquiler Joven (Youth Rental Voucher)

The application can be submitted in different ways:

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The Catalan government will buy half of the Bank of Spain building in Plaça Catalunya in Barcelona. The transaction will cost the Catalan government €58.4 million, plus an additional €36.9 million for renovations before it can move in, as announced this Friday. The VanguardThe acquisition of part of the building would allow the Catalan government to save approximately 4.5 million euros annually. The Governor of the Bank of Spain, José Luis Escrivá, had publicly admitted in the past that the bank's branch in the center of Barcelona was underutilized and had opened the door to its sale to the Generalitat (Catalan government), which is itself trying to increase its portfolio of owned offices.

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There are underlying shifts. Typically, Catalan civil society is critical from behind the scenes, yet polite and pragmatic in its approach to political power. But this seems to be changing somewhat. In some meetings and gatherings, business representatives are calling for action, for a certain mobilization to overcome challenges such as mobility (commuter rail, for example), the green transition, and reducing administrative bureaucracy. Some are a bit tired of always trying to please everyone and are demanding that politicians work more for the country's interests and less for those of their own party or some of its leaders.

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The trade war provoked by the Donald Trump administration, as well as its interventions in other countries, have heightened geopolitical tensions and disrupted traditional trade relations. In Catalonia, 67% of the €4.35 billion in exports to the United States have been affected. equivalent to 2.9% of all Catalan exports worldwideThis will be one of the main impacts on Catalonia's trade balance in 2025, and it remains to be seen whether, after two consecutive years of exports exceeding €100 billion, Catalan companies will be able to maintain this pace. To address this, the Catalan Government has launched Catalunya Exporta, a new program to help up to 2,000 companies begin their internationalization process—that is, start selling abroad for the first time. Interested companies can participate in workshops and seminars to develop skills in areas such as international operations management, financing, and the structure of an export department. For three years, they will receive support and mentoring from an international trade specialist who will develop a roadmap for them to begin exporting.

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Last year, 109 workers died in work-related accidents in Catalonia, a 22.5% increase compared to the previous year. Data from the Observatory of Labor and the Production Model sheds light on the trend of workplace accidents in 2025, a year in which the number of victims reached its highest level in the last 14 years. One has to go back to 2011, when 113 people died, to find a higher figure.

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Adrià Ramírez (Taradell, 1987) is the president of Public Transport Promotion (PTP), one of the user associations leading Saturday afternoon's demonstration against the management of the commuter rail service. The PTP, which is not affiliated with any political party, has been acting as a lobbying group for years within the rail sector and the public administration. "I encourage all train users to approach their nearest platform: that's often how things start to move," he says.

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This morning at 6:30, when Renfe spokesperson Antonio Carmona was asked if the commuter rail service was operating, he replied that The service was being provided "with reasonable normality""Reasonable" because we've had several days without service, and yesterday the service was intermittent. Therefore, the mere fact that trains are running is "reasonable." This morning, at 8:00 AM, service had been restored to 80%; however, some sections were by road and others by train.

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The Catalan government agreed on Monday to activate the teleworking decree to minimize mobility and reinforce all intercity bus lines during the day due to disruptions on the commuter rail network in Catalonia. The measures were agreed upon at a new government monitoring meeting, coinciding with Two new network outages this morning due to IT issues. But many workers, once again, have been unable to get to work or have arrived late. Who pays the price?

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Fatal accidents. Landslides. Sinking structures. Questionable maintenance. Lack of investment. Mutinous train drivers. These are just some of the issues that have characterized this tragic week on the Catalan rail network, which ends with a fatal accident in Gelida (preceded by another in Córdoba), three landslides, the collapse of two retaining walls (in Gelida and Pineda), and dozens of minor breakdowns. This unfortunate series of events has led the Generalitat – the body responsible for the service – to announce another shutdown of the entire system this Saturday morning. This has left Catalonia without rail service.More than 1,400 kilometers of track, but no trains.

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The Government has approved the Catalan public employment billwhich will replace the regulations in force since 1997. Having passed the first quarter of the 21st century, and given the content of the document, it is clear that public employment will remain under a model designed in the last millennium. The Government feels comfortable maintaining a status quo which he believes is immutable and refuses to reflect deeply on what the country needs in this chapter.

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The Minister for Digital Transformation and Public Administration, Óscar López, announced this Wednesday that the government will include Madrid in a joint bid with Catalonia for the European Gigafactory for Artificial Intelligence (AI), a project that could mobilize an investment of around 4 billion euros and that It must be carried out in Móra la Nova (Ebro River Basin). Sources from the Catalan government, which initially promoted the project, confirmed that the Catalan administration is working to expand the project to the Community of Madrid.

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Cybercrime is a growing phenomenon with the rise of new technologies, so not only are citizens victims, but public administrations have also become a target. In fact, they handle a large volume of resources and data on individuals and legal entities, making them attractive to criminals. Proof of this is that the Generalitat (the Catalan government), as ARA has been able to confirm through a transparency request, has also been a victim of financial fraud. Specifically, a total of €1,711,068 has been "compromised," meaning the government has recorded an attempt to steal this amount of resources through fraud. Of this amount, however, the Generalitat has been able to retain the majority of the money: €1,661,948. "The difference of €49,120 corresponds to the amount that the cybercriminals have actually managed to defraud," the government admits. The Presidency highlights that they have managed to preserve 94% of the resources.

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Welsh First Minister Eluned Morgan (Cardiff, 1967) speaks to ARA during her visit to Catalonia this week to finalize a cooperation agreement. A member of the Labour Party, she is the first woman to be elected Prime Minister of this historic nation and faces elections in May.

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Visibly pleased with the regional financing proposal presented by Spanish Vice President María Jesús Montero, but aware that it's impossible to obtain 100% of what they want, the Catalan Minister of Economy, Alícia Romero (Caldes d'Estrac, 1976), received ARA at the Palau de la Generalitat, convinced that Catalonia will succeed. She also stated that she doesn't see it as impossible for the proposal to go ahead.

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