The Government of the Generalitat has recently submitted to Parliament the bill on professional public management, an initiative that constitutes a critical and determining pillar for the transformation of our Administration. It is very possible that this reform will not have the media impact of other legislative initiatives. However, its rigorous application can significantly impact the efficiency of the institutional apparatus and the real improvement of public services. The principle that inspires this reform is to establish a clear line of demarcation between political responsibility and professional management responsibility.In any consolidated democratic system, it legitimately falls to governments to determine the country's political priorities and roadmap. The president and their ministers must be able to choose their main political advisors to define the government program, interpret society's changing demands, design public policies, and allocate budgetary resources to them. This political decision-making function is not only fully legitimate but also entirely indispensable for democratic functioning.A very different question, however, is who should assume the executive direction necessary to translate these political priorities into concrete results. Leading highly complex public organizations today, administering collective economic resources, leading multidisciplinary human teams, driving digital transformation processes, or evaluating the real impact of policies requires very specific technical knowledge, experience, and managerial competencies. For this reason, a very substantial part of the current management positions in the Generalitat and its institutional public sector should cease to depend on political trust or free appointment to be filled through public, transparent, and competitive procedures. The bill foresees that future regulatory development will set the criteria for delimiting which positions correspond to political responsibility and which should be strictly reserved for professionals. It is not about depoliticizing government action, but about professionalizing the management of the Administration in a stable and permanent manner.

The public sector contract law is based on the principles of free competition and equal opportunities. Any company, entity, or person from all over Catalonia can submit bids for public administration tenders. This also applies to those from the Spanish State and any country in the European Union. The awarding bodies are very demanding and do not accept any criteria that discriminate on the grounds of origin or nationality. However, these public tenders, which are necessary to guarantee transparency and prevent favoritism, sometimes result in surprising awards, with decisions that are difficult for citizens and local businesses to understand.

In 2019 I completed a master's degree in economics in London. Shortly before I graduated, representatives of the British government visited the university to present their Fast Stream program for civil service accessIt was an attractive career path for young economists interested in public policy: a highly competitive, yet streamlined and competency-based entry process, with digital tests, joining the following year, an entry salary, and rotations between ministries while training to perform leadership and public management tasks.

The brutal attack that the new Trump administration and its techno-oligarchy allies are carrying out against everything that sounds public is so exaggerated that it may seem simply bizarre to us, and as such become part of what we discuss with our work colleagues and friends when we have a moment. But the matter is much more serious, since when public spending, public servants, taxes and all the so-called institutional chiringuitos are attacked, behind it there are essential public policies and services for a large part of the population. On the other hand, it is not just another eccentricity of the new Trumpian era, but in Europe (and in Catalonia) there are many supporters of applying the same logic a public sector that is accused of wasting resources, of caring only about those who take advantage of the system and of having grown in an excessive way.