News

Government of restitution

Quim Torra will reappoint Turull, Rull, Comín and Puig as ministers, while ERC’s Aragonès and JxCat’s Artadi will be the main figures in the executive

Reinstating Catalonia’s institutions was a constant in the investiture debates to swear in Quim Torra. Now that the new president has formally taken office, it is time for a new government, and Torra wants to reinstate four of the ministers from the previous executive dismissed when direct rule was imposed. The four sacked ministers are Jordi Turull (Presidency), Josep Rull (Territory and Sustainability), both of whom are in prison, and Antoni Comín (Health) and Lluís Puig (Culture), both in exile in Brussels and who this week avoided extradition. On social media all four thanked the president for his confidence in them.

The rest of the ministers in the new government also expressed their thanks, mostly on social media. As agreed by the main pro-independence parties, JxCat and ERC, the new government will have 13 departments –apart from Presidency– split between the two. Unlike in the previous term, ERC will take on the posts with the highest budgets and social profile. As well as health, ERC will this time also control Education.

Pere Aragonès (ERC) and Elsa Artadi (JxCat) will be the executive’s two key figures. Aragonès will be vice president and Treasury minister, while Artadi will take on Business and Knowledge and will be the government spokesperson. Former Premià de Mar mayor, Miquel Buch (JxCat), will become Interior minister, while JxCat’s Jordi Puigneró will take over Telecommunications and Cybersecurity, now known as Digital Policy and Public Administration.

Among ERC’s ministers will be Ernest Maragall in charge of Exterior Action and Institutional Relations, with Josep Bargalló in charge of Education, 14 years after he occupied the same post in the first tripartite government.

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