Catalan President Pere Aragonès at a press conference following the inauguration of his government’s new councilors this Tuesday in Barcelona Quique García (EFE)
Catalan President Pere Aragonès has decided to activate the green button and govern with the sole support of his 33 deputies, compared to the 135 in the plenary chamber, which adopt an extremely variable geometry. His former Junts partners have chosen to mount a fierce opposition and everything seems to indicate that the only option left for Esquerra to survive in Parliament is to align himself with the PSC (33) and in line with En Comú Podem (8) to agree on households. . The three forces add up to a large absolute majority of 74 seats. Either it is that scenario or, as the two left forces point out, the legislature will have a more than uncertain journey with expanded public accounts. The president and Salvador Illa, the socialist leader, will hold a first meeting within a week to try out this new phase after the crisis and the junts’ departure from government. They will do so despite enormous reluctance from the ERC President himself, Oriol Junqueras, who just a week ago closed the door on deals with the Socialists.
The agreement or not between the two forces in Catalonia will also affect what happens in the Congress of Deputies, although both forces are trying, at least publicly, to separate the two scenarios. For now, Aragonès will appear in Parliament on Wednesday to report on the reshuffle of its executive branch and the signing of three directors from worlds tearing the seams of the ERC: Quim Nadal (former PSC); Carles Campuzano (former CDC) and Gemma Ubasart (former Podem). Predictably, this appearance will be a portrait of the Chamber’s new reality, as Aragonès faces seven opposition groups: his former partners accuse them of having abandoned the path to independence (Junts and CUP); the right block (Vox, PP and Ciudadanos) and the left block (PSC and Common). Aragonès himself admitted in an interview with TV3 this Thursday that he does not intend to submit to a vote of confidence as Junts is asking because he would not overcome it and lead Catalonia to elections and another likely period of instability.
Faced with this scenario, Socialists are stunned and perplexed by the fact that the President has not agreed to start budget negotiations in a situation of extreme social urgency. In fact, Aragonès has come to put into perspective a possible budget extension that would make it difficult to command the 3,098 million additional investments available to his government. After the break with Junts, Oriol Junqueras, President of ERC, stated that his party could not reach agreements with the Socialists because they had not done enough to end the “repression”. However, Aragonès has not completely closed the door. Illa warns that she didn’t say yes either and asks for clarification. “There is confusion and few clear ideas,” he stressed in statements to Rac1 this Friday.
The negotiation of the general budget between the ERC and Parliament bypasses Parliament, although the PSC refuses any exchange of support. “I’ve never really liked trading cards,” Illa said. The reality is that the PSC never backed Aragonès’ accounts because he didn’t want to be a prisoner of the Madrid negotiations. The scenario has now changed and no matter what, no one doubts that approving or not approving the budgets will be the cotton test to know the length of the legislature. The two leaders will hold an initial meeting late next week, which they arranged on Thursday in a brief talk that lasted – Illa revealed – just two minutes. The anticipation of the meeting is basically because Aragonès declares whether he “accepts the Socialists’ offer or not,” stressed Socialist spokeswoman Alícia Romero. Despite the fact that they are vital to approving the accounts, Aragonès has placed them as a last negotiating option after Junts (who have already said no) and Common and CUP. However, Campuzano has previously said the government must consider “other scenarios” (referring to the PSC) should junts slam the door.
The PSC has met with employers Foment and PIMEC, with CC OO and CGU and the Third Sector and myriad entities to hear their demands regarding future budgets. “The problems of families and companies are important. Nobody talks to us about repression,” Romero said in Parliament this Friday, who asked the government to approve the draft bill of former councilor Jaume Giró (Junts) in order to present it in time. His goal would be for the executive to accept his relief shock plan, which totals 800 million and has been raised by his so-called alternative government. The sum doubles the 300 million social protection that Aragonès raised in the general policy debate.
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