The Government covers King Felipe VI in his most difficult week while the Generalitat plants him

King Felipe VI has finally had a respite with a positive message in one of the most difficult weeks of his reign, in which the fiscal regularization of 4.4 million of the king emeritus and the vaccination in Abu Dhabi of the infantas Elena and Cristina.

The Government, headed by Pedro Sánchez and the Minister of Industry, Reyes Maroto, has turned to support the Head of State in a particularly delicate moment and has accompanied him on a visit to the historic Seat factory in Martorell (Barcelona) .

Faced with this especially symbolic endorsement, the Generalitat has decided at the last minute to give a sit-in both to the King and Sánchez as well as to Seat and the Volkswagen Group, which had displaced its top executives to present a major electrification project that Felipe VI has openly supported.

There was no representative of the regional government at the meeting.

A spokesman for the Executive has assured that it is a position established from the speech with which the monarch condemned in a speech the illegal independence referendum held on October 1, 2017, with few exceptions since then.

The one who did come to greet the King, as is customary on every visit to Catalonia, was Major Josep Lluís Trapero, head of the Mossos d'Esquadra, the regional police.

He was the only representative of the local Administration.

But during the visit, which takes place in full tension between ERC and Junts to negotiate the new Government, there was no member of the Government, not even of a medium profile, while a good part of the economic team of La Moncloa was there, in a clearing gesture of support for both the Seat project and the King.

Sánchez, who as usual when the head of state is not involved, has been very critical in recent weeks with the behavior of Juan Carlos I, but at all times he has tried to contrast it with the "exemplary" of Felipe VI.

The Government and the House of the King have on the table a series of reforms to modernize the monarchy and make it more transparent, which are currently being delayed.

The political message was very clear: the King and the Government go to the economic heart of Catalonia, also accompanied by one of the highest representatives of the Catalan business community, Josep Lluis Sánchez Llibre, and with the main executives of the multinational Volkswagen, to defend a project of Basic modernization so that the automobile industry, which, according to Felipe VI, provides direct or indirect employment to two million people in Spain, can survive the crisis.

And meanwhile, the Generalitat remains out of the picture.

In the cliques of politicians the coup d'état of the Catalan business community the previous day was still very present, with the manifesto "Enough is enough, let's focus on the recovery", in which 300 associations, including some close to the independence movement, demand the Government that protects the productive fabric and tries to stop altercations in Barcelona.

The King's visit to Catalonia this time was uneventful, unlike on previous occasions.

There were protests of fifty pro-independence protesters, but they were very far from the Seat factory and there were few people, so they did not hinder the act at any time.

The King and Sánchez had no more agenda in Catalonia and returned to Madrid as soon as the visit was over.

Historic opportunity

The King was very clear in his speech and even took practically for granted that the Volkswagen project and its commitment to the country with the manufacture of an electric car at the Martorell facilities and the promotion of the first battery factory in Spain will have the support from European funds, something that has not yet been decided.

Executive sources point out that these types of projects are precisely the ones that are being sought to help them with the recovery fund, but they will still have to go through many procedures until the support is approved.

“The recovery plan that Spain is drawing up will support companies that, like the Volkswagen Group, are firmly committed to initiatives such as the one we celebrate here today.

The project to locate the production of the small electric vehicle of the entire Volkswagen Group in Spain is, without a doubt, magnificent news, and an example of how to apply these funds to large-scale projects that affect our companies across the board. industrial capacities ”, said Felipe VI.

The fund has not yet begun to be distributed.

For his part, the president of the Volkswagen Group, Herbert Diess, assured that Spain and Seat have a "historic opportunity to transform the automotive industry in Spain" and pointed out the relevance of the reactivation funds and the Next Generation fund to be able to meet this objective, necessary to achieve the pollution reduction targets set by the EU Green Deal.

The manager of the second largest automotive group in the world by sales volume has affirmed that the German consortium and the Government "are together" in this transformation.

Diess did not make direct reference to the construction of the battery factory announced this Thursday by the Minister of Industry, Reyes Maroto, which will go hand in hand with a private public consortium together with Seat and Iberdrola.

Earlier, the president of Seat, Wayne Griffiths, had stressed that the current is "the moment" to carry out the objective of electrifying the Martorell plant from 2025 with the aim that the weight of the industry can grow in the set of Spain.

"Seventy years ago Seat put Spain on wheels and now we want to put Spain on electric wheels," he said, with a notice that he has been repeating for months: "We cannot do it alone, we need the support of the Government and other administrations so that Spain promote the creation of the electricity ecosystem.

You cannot miss the electrification train ”.

The event was called to celebrate the 70-year history of Seat, the company that maintains the largest factory in Catalonia.

The Government changed its mind about its presence in the Baix Llobregat facilities this morning.

Knowledgeable sources of the call assure that the Department of Vice-presidency and Economy and Finance had assured the presence at the act of

number two

of the council, Albert Castellanos, of whom they would have dismissed this morning.

A spokesman for the Government has denied the attendance of any member of the Executive.

The decision once again places the Generalitat on the hard line in its relations with the King.

In recent years, despite the complicated political situation, members of the regional Executive had participated in events with Felipe VI organized by third parties.

On October 9, however, the Government already chose not to send any representative to the event organized by the Barcelona Free Zone Consortium in which the King participated together with Pedro Sánchez.

"Wherever the Spanish King is, the Government of Catalonia will not be," said then the Minister of the Presidency, Meritxell Budó.

Members of the PSC, Ciudadanos and the PP have censured the Generalitat's sit-in on the monarch, a decision that they have admitted to understand from En Comú Podem.

The socialist parliamentary leader, Salvador Illa, has lamented the absence in a call for SEAT, when the largest Catalan factory has planned "an injection of energy for the Catalan economy."

“And then we want the battery factory to come?

If we are boycotting companies for political reasons ”, Carlos Carrizosa, from Ciudadanos, has rhetorically asked himself, while Alejandro Fernández has ironized about the absence, by linking it to the good relations that ERC and the Government supposedly maintain:“ The fruits of Sánchez's dialogue table with ERC is impressive ”.

The refusal comes at a time when the automotive industry is debating its future.

After the announcement of the closure of Nissan in Catalonia, Seat will provide good news with its investment plans to manufacture an electric vehicle and promote the transformation of the automotive sector in Catalonia and the promotion of a first battery factory that has options to relapse on land that Nissan will release by the end of the year.

In fact, among the dozens of projects worked by the Generalitat, one of the most important is the one that revolves around electric mobility and that factory, a project that Seat has led, but in which the Ministry of Industry has maintained a close collaboration with the Catalan Executive.