Albert Dalmau (Barcelona, 1990) visits l'ARA after a week in which, despite everything, the Government has saved a match ball and has gained time to approve the budgets.The government yesterday made a gesture quite unprecedented in Catalan political history, which is the withdrawal of the budgets. Is it a tactical withdrawal?

The first budgets designed by Salvador Illa's government are "fully focused on municipal development." This is the thesis that The Minister of the Presidency, Albert Dalmau, defended in his first appearance in Parliament To explain the main lines of the budget, with 9.1 billion euros more available for the Generalitat compared to 2023. One of the secretariats that fares best is that of Local Governments and Relations with the Aran Valley, which increases from 196.5 million euros to 351 million to give municipalities a boost to carry out urgent works, unblock projects that have been stalled for years, or continue with the neighborhood planAll of this comes a year before the elections, a crucial event for mayors, where everyone wants to arrive with as much work done as possible to showcase during the campaign. What could the municipalities lose if the Catalan Parliament ends up rejecting the budget? No From Esquerra?

With March 20th marked on the calendar as the date that could derail the government's budget, the PSC is working against the clock to try to add ERC's votes to the project. To the calls for responsibility made by the President of the Generalitat, Salvador IllaThe Minister of the Presidency, Albert Dalmau, added this on Monday during the first of the appearances before Parliament regarding the 2026 budget, which all ministers will make during the week. Before the Committee on Institutional Affairs, Dalmau insisted that the country "needs" a new budget and that the government cannot continue governing with the 2023 budget. by patching it up through credit supplements"The Catalan government will fulfill 100% of the investiture agreements. That is our objective," he told the Republicans, who insist they will reject the project if there is no agreement to transfer personal income tax collection to the Catalan Tax Agency. The main stumbling block in the negotiations remains the "guarantee" the Republicans are demanding from the Socialists. Dalmau has not commented on the possible ways to achieve this, which range from an amendment to the Organic Law on the Financing of Autonomous Communities (LOFCA) to the Ministry of Finance itself, in the proposal it will submit to the Fiscal and Financial Policy Council, opening the door for regional tax authorities to manage major taxes. For now, however, the Ministry of Finance rejects all of these scenarios.

Since 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?

After a week of chaos on the commuter rail network, the opposition has pounced on the Catalan government, demanding accountability for the state of the network and the service disruptions. Replacing Salvador Illa –still hospitalized—The Minister of the Presidency, Albert Dalmau, appeared before Parliament to defend the government's actions regarding the service disruptions following the accident in Gelida, a crisis that on Monday resulted in two dismissals: the operational director of the commuter rail service and the director of operations for Adif (the Spanish railway infrastructure manager). However, the opposition is not satisfied and is demanding a reshuffle of leadership positions within the Generalitat (the Catalan government), starting with that of the Minister of Territory, Sílvia Paneque. All political groups except Comuns have demanded this, although they have suggested that the same person should not bear the responsibility for two of the government's most pressing issues: trains and housing. Nevertheless, the government is standing firm behind the Minister and her team.

A week later, the first dismissals have arrived due to the rail chaos in Catalonia: the operational director of Cercanías (commuter rail), Josep Enric Garcia Alemany, and the operations director of Adif (Spain's railway infrastructure manager), Raúl Míguez Bailo, were dismissed with immediate effect on Monday afternoon. Minutes before the announcement, the Catalan Minister of Territory, Silvia Paneque, had demanded that Renfe (the Spanish national railway company) and Adif take responsibility for another chaotic day on the tracks. This move was calculated behind the scenes in coordination with national officials. The Secretary of State for Transport, José Antonio Santano, announced on TVE (Spanish public television) that the dismissals had already taken place. "At this point, it is undeniable that without taking responsibility, we cannot move forward," he argued. Therefore, he explained that, with the approval of the Minister of Transport, Óscar Puente, he asked the presidents of Adif and Renfe to carry out both dismissals, among other things due to a "lack of coordination" that "is unacceptable." García Alemany was a government appointment who had put it second de facto the director of commuter rail in CataloniaAntonio Carmona, who does remain in his position.

For the second day in a row, Catalonia has had no commuter rail service following the derailment of a train in Gelida due to the collapse of a retaining wallThe government announced Wednesday night that service would resume Thursday morning, but a few hours later, commuters heading to stations found that trains were not running. While the opposition attacks the government, which is being led during the president's medical leave by the Presidential Advisor, Albert Dalmau, the government defends itself: it maintains that the service has not resumed because it "has not been possible" to restart it with only six train drivers (out of 140) who failed to report for work. Meanwhile, the train drivers are protesting the state of an infrastructure that has suffered decades of underinvestment. with the specter of the accident in Adamuz (Cordoba) where 45 people died as a precedentAnd they maintain that they had already warned that, without guarantees, they would not return to the trains.

With the agreement for the unique financing just around the cornerThe Catalan government has opened a new key initiative with the Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC). This involves the creation of the Airport Authority of Catalonia, which the executive council agreed to promote this Wednesday at its first meeting after the Christmas holidays. As stipulated in the investiture agreement with the ERC, it will be a specialized body through which the Generalitat (Catalan government) will implement its own policies to achieve "comprehensive governance" of the airport system. "Its creation allows us to overcome the fragmentation we currently have," explained the government spokesperson and Minister of Territory, Silvia Paneque, at a press conference. To this end, the government has tasked a technical committee, coordinated by Public Airports of Catalonia, with drafting a proposal within six months to amend the airport law to create this body and its statutes. The creation of the Airport Authority of Catalonia will therefore require parliamentary approval. The executive branch anticipates it will be operational by 2027.

Major changes are coming to the administration of the Generalitat. The 50 proposals from the Cetra expert group are on the tableThe government is still drafting the laws that will shape the transformation of the public sector in the coming years. The changes include everything from... simplification of administrative procedures From the incorporation of AI, through changes to competitive examinations and the end of politically appointed public managers with the introduction of competitive selection processes and protections against arbitrary dismissals, the reforms have been extensive. But what do representatives of public sector workers think?

That each city council appoint a person responsible for leading language policy from a department or commissioner. That a plan to promote Catalan adapted to each town be implemented this term. That language clauses be incorporated into administrative contracts. Ensure compliance with language regulations and correct violations. And that City Hall employees and all its services respect the linguistic rights of citizens and can serve them in Catalan. These are the main objectives of the motion that the Government wants to be approved in all municipalities throughout Catalonia.

The government's decision to abolish teleworking for senior officials has reached the courts. The trade union Forum of the Generalitat Lawyers has filed an administrative appeal against the decision. the elimination of remote work for deputy general managers, according to AHORA. The entity had already attempted to get the Department of the Presidency to back down by filing an appeal with the Generalitat (Catalan Government). But, faced with the Government's rejection of its requests, it is now taking the battle to court, according to Catalunya Ràdio. What are its arguments? The main one is that the Catalan government has bypassed union negotiation procedures and intends to unilaterally modify the working conditions of the affected civil servants.

The 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.

Just as TV3 began experimental broadcasts on the eve of September 11, 1983, the entirely Catalan-language Televisión Española channel will launch "around National Day," as announced by the Minister for the Presidency, Albert Dalmau, in an interview with RTVE. The agreement for the transfer of radio airtime is expected to be signed this April, which Dalmau hopes will last "15 years" to provide "stability" (and also because 2040 is the suggested date for the shutdown of DTT, although this is an ongoing debate in Europe). After the inaugural day, test broadcasts will begin for the Diada (National Day) with the goal of having the Catalan-language channel "fully operational by October."

Albert Dalmau (Barcelona, ​​​​1990), advisor to the Presidency, visits the ARA just after the four bilateral commissions between the State and the Generalitat.

Politics has become a competition in which at the end of each day the points scored by the contenders are counted, and yesterday's scoreboard showed two big winners: Pedro Sánchez and Salvador Illa.