Antoni Bassas's analysis: 'Sánchez, the vaccines are not to your credit. The economic aid should be"

Today we will see tables outside bars and restaurants and a shadow of normality will return to our daily lives, with the beginning of the end of lockdown.

We can already see that the Government has adopted it with a doubly heavy heart: pressured at the same time by a very punished economy and by a very pressured health care system. Be that as it may, let us put as much as we can into it.

And yesterday, as if all this were a distant responsibility of his, the president of the Spanish government came out to sign up for the good news: we will soon have vaccines.

Pedro Sánchez: "The European Union, which is the union to which Spain belongs, has already signed 5 contracts for more than 1,200,000 doses, a number which can be increased. A very substantial part of the population will be able to be vaccinated with all the guarantees during the first semester of 2021".

I found the beginning quite funny: "the EU, which is the union to which Spain belongs". Not only because it has remained basic, but because it tells exactly the truth: the vaccines have not been manufactured by him, nor has he bought them; he will distribute them.

The fact that the vaccines are coming soon is excellent news, but the credit does not go to Sanchez. From him, instead, we expect decisions on the suspension or freezing of taxes, fees, quotas... But this is hard, as there is not a euro to spare. So, let's make it easier for the President of the Spanish Government: from Sanchez we can expect the State administration to be much more diligent and useful in the management of paperwork, which, on the other hand, could be a lot faster as the piece of paper we're usually missing is held by some other department of the same administration. Vaccines yes, President Sanchez, but this is easy. Above all, help.

By the way, about these two million vaccines that Spain has to receive in January, Dr. Argimon said this morning that Catalonia will get 350,000 and since they are double-dose, it would serve to vaccinate 175,000 people. "If we start vaccinating in January, these vaccines will not take effect until after 40 days and, therefore, these people will not have immunity until mid-March". Let's keep that in mind before we cry victory over the virus before the summer. In fact, Argimon has said: "Next summer will be better than this one. We won't be living a normal life, but it'll be closer to normal."

One last note. Yesterday we published an interview with Antoni Vila Casas, 90 years old, a patron who made his fortune in the pharmaceutical sector. When Esther Vera asks him if he would have imagined that today, in contemporary Spain, there would be pro-independence politicians in prison, he replies that no, but that it has been a long time coming.

Vila Casas: "We have nothing to do while we are with Spain, Catalonia has no future with Spain, none at all, for sure. They will never let us do anything. ERC is also an advocate of independence, but what it wants is to return to being Catalonia's leading force, and it does not care about the rest. There is nothing to be done. Companys was sure about it, but they aren't now".

Our recognition for those who work in the front line, a memory for those who suffer, for political prisoners, for exiles, and may we have a good day.