Catalan government takes office

With the swearing in of the new Catalan ministers, scheduled for today at 11.30 am in the Palau de la Generalitat, the Catalan legislature will finally get underway once the names have been published in the Official Gazette of the Generalitat. The formal ceremony which will be different from others given the “exceptional nature” of the political situation, with politicians imprisoned and in exile, will be followed by the first cabinet meeting which will see the imposition of Article 155 immediately lifted, as established the decree signed by the Senate on October 27 last year following the symbolic declaration of independence.

As announced previously by President Quim Torra, the immediate commitment for the new government will be to recover the 11 laws related to social issues which were challenged by Madrid and suspended by the Constitutional Court.

The new government will most certainly ratify the legal action taken against former Spanish PM Mariano Rajoy and his deputy Soraya Sanz de Santamaria for prevarication in refusing to officially sanction the naming of the new Catalan ministers.

Also on the table of the first meeting will be the restoration of some of those officials sacked by Madrid under Article 155.

While the central government has been in control of the Generalitat, Torra has been careful not to detail plans for Catalonia’s political future but that may well change today.