“The big problem of this legislature is that there has not been an industrial policy.” With this diagnosis, Jordi Turull, the Secretary-General of Junts, opened his remarks at the special session of the Simposio de Reindustrialización, promoted by beBartlet with Agenda Pública as media partner. The leader pointed to the lack of industrial planning, high energy costs, and the infrastructure deficit as among the main obstacles to Catalonia’s competitiveness, and urged for greater political and economic decision-making capacity from the Generalitat.
Turull was critical of the central government’s management and held it responsible for the blockage of fundamental initiatives aimed at restoring the weight of industry in the economy. As an example, he cited the slow progress in the processing of the new Industry Law, which he identified as one of the ministry’s major outstanding commitments. In his view, the parliamentary dependence of the PSOE on its left-wing partners has contributed to a paralysis where the Government “neither acts nor lets others act”.
Energía, infraestructuras y seguridad jurídica
Industrial competitiveness occupied much of Turull’s reflections, who identified three priorities: reducing energy and logistics costs, guaranteeing legal certainty, and removing bureaucratic barriers that hinder business activity. In this last area, he advocated administrative simplification that would speed up projects and investments, with mechanisms such as a one-stop window.
On energy matters, he called for moving toward greater self-sufficiency and questioned the regulatory uncertainty that, in his view, affects investment decisions. In particular, he criticized the lack of clarity about the timetable for shutting down nuclear plants and the difficulties to advance electrification and the rollout of renewable energies.
He also argued that fiscal policies should accompany industrial transformation processes, rather than penalize companies investing in decarbonization. In this sense, he cited as an example Junts’ intervention to prevent an increase in tax pressure on Tarragona’s petrochemical facilities, an action that, he explained, helped preserve strategic investments tied to modernization and the energy transition.
“Turull was critical of the central government’s management and held it responsible for blocking fundamental initiatives to recover the weight of industry in the economy”
The infrastructure sector constituted another axis of his diagnosis. Turull denounced the low levels of budget execution and the insufficient emphasis on rail freight transport. In particular, Junts considers that the delays accumulated in the Mediterranean Corridor reflect a political prioritization of a radial infrastructure model centered on Madrid, which harms the competitiveness of industry and Catalan ports.
During the moving session of the Symposium, Turull emphasized the new Industry Law as an urgent priority.
Más capacidad de decisión autonómica para recuperar el peso industrial
Turull argued that Catalunya’s industrial recovery must be grounded in a higher value-added economy, capable of leveraging its talent and productive tradition. He recalled that Catalonia managed to consolidate as an industrial territory since the first industrial revolution despite lacking its own energy resources such as coal, thanks to its entrepreneurial capacity and human capital.
However, he warned that these advantages will not be enough without a competitive framework that favors investment and helps retain talent. To this end, he deemed indispensable the possession of greater competencies, resources, and execution capacity in strategic areas such as taxation, energy, and infrastructures.
“What we ask is that from Catalonia we can do everything that Madrid neither does nor lets others do”, he summarized. A demand that he linked directly to the need for Catalonia to have greater political clout and influence in state decisions.
“Defended that Catalunya’s industrial recovery must be supported by a higher value-added economy, capable of harnessing its talent and productive tradition”
Politically, and ahead of the November 29 election, Turull asserted Junts’ role as a force capable of conditioning central government decisions. He argued that much of his parliamentary activity’s outcomes cannot be measured solely by the initiatives approved, but also by those measures that the party has managed to block, especially in the economic and business sphere. “The great success of Junts is what we have blocked more than what we have achieved, but many of these things will never be made public,” he stated.
The leader highlighted the difficulty of conveying this message in the current electoral context and argued that defending Catalonia’s interests does not imply acting to the detriment of Spaniards as a whole.
“The great success of Junts is what we have blocked more than what we have achieved, but many of these things will never be made public”
The intervention thus left a central thesis: for Junts, Catalan reindustrialization depends as much on reviving an active industrial policy as on the region’s ability to decide on the factors that determine its competitiveness. A position that placed the debate about the industry’s future at the intersection of business needs, investment priorities, and the territorial distribution of political power.
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