The new president of the Generalitat, Carles Puigdemont, has completed the 100-day honeymoon period granted to all political leaders coming into office. And, in presenting his government’s programme for the term in office (pdf), insisted that it would be implemented before the deadline for the term, initially set at 18 months, or until June next year. However, he also warned: “We will not become prisoners to any framework in the form of a calendar.”
“This is a government plan with a time limit, which has to be implemented within the agreed timescale,” he said. Yet Puigdemont wanted to preempt any gossip by warning that there could be “a supplement to the calendar” and in that case “it would not be a tragedy”, while exclaiming: “If only we could do it in less time!”
The head of the Catalan government also warned that “factors could arise to alter this calendar,” such as a Spanish general election. For this reason, he warned that the initial deadline could be moved. “We will not become prisoners to the calendar,” he said.
“There is an independence majority in the Catalan parliament, and this is a government for independence,” Puigdemont made it clear. “In the case of requiring a mechanism needing an extra two months to bring down waiting lists, one could understand if a government were to last 20 months,” he said by way of example. “We are in the final stretch of a process that has lasted for a number of years,” he pointed out. “We are ready to run the last mile in a reasonable time, but [18 months] is not a mantra,” he concluded.
