Mas promises a “business friendly” Government, “open to dialog, transparent and with cohesion”

Barcelona (ACN).-  Today the investiture debate begun.  The leader of the largest group within the newly-elected Catalan Parliament, Artur Mas, the President of the Centre-Right Catalan Nationalist Coalition, Convergència i Unió (CiU), delivered his investiture speech. Everything indicates he will become the 129^th President of the Catalan Government. Mas discussed his Government’s priorities. The first is the new economic agreement between Catalonia and Spain, the “first step” in Catalonia’s “national transition” towards obtaining its own right to decide on its future. Mas pictured a Government that is “open to dialog, transparent” and connected with civil society and entrepreneurs; “business friendly”, he stated in English.

The investiture debate will last 2 days and tomorrow afternoon the first voting will take place. It is likely that Mas will not be able to be elected in this first voting. On Thursday 23^rd of December, the second voting will be held and a simple majority will be then required. This day, Artur Mas will very likely be elected the next Catalan President and will be invested to form the new Catalan Government. The question now is which party or parties will vote for him or will abstain to facilitate his investiture, and which will clearly oppose. The sense of this voting may give some indications of future agreements and collaborations among parties. Mas will need punctual support as he lacks 6 MPs to rule with absolute majority. The investiture debate may give some hints on the project and vision coincidences, and will set the priorities and the broad road map of the next years.

Mas delivered this morning his investiture speech before the new Catalan Parliament. In the afternoon, the rest of the groups were answering, as well as tomorrow. Mas called for an “open to dialog, transparent” and “business friendly” Government. His first priority is “to lift the country up”, economically and politically speaking.

On the political framework field, he stated he will push for a new economic agreement between Catalonia and Spain regarding fiscal redistribution, similar to what the Basque Country and Navarra have. Mas’ objective is that Catalonia gives less money to the rest of Spain and thus it counts with larger economic resources. This new agreement would be the first step of Mas mid-term project. In his investiture speech, Mas declared the start of a “national transition” in Catalonia towards Catalans’ right to decide on their own future. In the horizon: getting the self-determination right for Catalonia, which could later be used or not. Mas also declared his will to approve the first Catalan electoral system law, which was never agreed in the last 30 years.

On purely economics, Mas will also implement an economic reactivation plan to fight against unemployment and to help businesses, focusing on innovation and infrastructures, as well as on productive sectors. He also affirmed his will to fight against the public deficit and reduce public expenditure by reducing Government departments and political positions. He will also reduce the number of reports, the amount spent in advertising and the protocol expenditure. In addition, he announced the creation of two advisory councils on Economics and Health. They would be created by the Cercle d’Economia, a business and academic association on economics, without extra costs as members would not be paid. The similar model would work for the Health advisory council created by the Doctors’ Professional Association.

Mas also stated that once the public budget is in better shape after the crisis, social policy would represent 55% of the expenditure. The very likely new Catalan President also talked about social policy and cohesion. The first tool for social cohesion and equal opportunities is to guarantee that all Catalans understand Catalan and Spanish. Mas thus defended the Catalan language immersion model in public schools.