Madrid and Generalitat in standoff over whose official bulletin has the upper hand

The power struggle between the Catalan government and Madrid has gone as far as to drag their official bulletins into the quarrel. Only two weeks after the Spanish government signed a decree that effectively drained Catalonia’s DOGC (1) (Diari Oficial de la Generalitat de Catalunya) of any legal weight, on Tuesday Mas’ cabinet took steps to ensure that the DOGC will not be cornered by the BOE. Furthermore, the Catalan government granted the Autonomous Entity of Official Daily Publications the exclusive authority to formally publicise any announcements made in the BOE.

At a press conference, Catalan Minister for the Presidency Francesc Homs explained the decision taken this Tuesday, whereby any formal announcements made by the Catalan administration will be printed in the DOGC “before being inserted in the BOE”. In response to the Spanish law that seeks to rationalise the public sector, Homs noted that the Catalan Statute clearly states that all Catalan bills, rules, acts and government decisions must be formally advertised in the DOGC. Yet as per the new Spanish law, these must be printed in the BOE from now on.

Homs complained that there is “a deliberate attempt to undermine devolution in Spain”, which can clearly be seen as the driving force behind Mariano Rajoy’s recentralising decisions.

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(1) N.T. Spain’s Boletín Oficial del Estado (BOE) is the Madrid-published official daily bulletin where new Spanish legislation is printed --and, therefore, enacted-- and all manner of government decisions are formally announced. Catalonia’s DOGC is its Catalan equivalent.