Junts per Catalunya closed a peaceful congress this weekend with the desire to maintain bridges with the PSOE and the strategy that he drew at the beginning of the legislature of giving votes in exchange for specific agreements for Catalonia. The conclave, which elevated Carles Puigdemont to the presidency, has made a commitment to move closer to centrality, while the new executive demands from the Government “strong gestures” so that there is an agreement to process the Budgets. This Monday, Vice President Antoni Castellà requested steps from the Government such as dividing the spending ceiling into three thirds (State, communities and City Councils) or the forgiveness of the regional liquidity fund (FLA) to compensate for the lack of execution of the budgets. The PSOE admits that right now it is more concerned about Podemos’ votes after demanding 90% of its bases to approve the budgets, breaking relations with Israel and reducing rental prices by 40%.
Castellà has admitted, in an interview on Catalunya Ràdio, that the “great debate” is the Budgets and that this gesture can lead to an agreement to begin processing the accounts, not to approve them. “Increasing the spending ceiling could mean 2,000 million more euros for the Government of Salvador Illa,” he stated as an example. Jordi Turull, general secretary, has added that they have always been very clear with the meetings they hold with the PSOE in Switzerland and that they have warned them that to agree on the accounts they have to comply with pacts such as the official status of Catalan in Europe, pending investments or the transfer in immigration matters. “It is not going in the wrong direction, but there are ministries that resist,” he said.
Junts has decided in its congress to “open the party” and this is what both Puigdemont and Turull have stated in a letter to the militancy. Castellà has pointed out that Catalan supporters must now have a place in Junts in the same way that in the past, in Convergència, there was room for independentists. The PSOE has made a positive reading of the Junts conclave and perceives that it has softened its positions since the launch in Congress of the commissions on Operation Catalonia and 17-A. “We are going to give the new executive time. We fulfill what we agreed to,” they say.
The accounts on the horizon
The accounts, in the best of cases, would be extended for at least two to three months after the ERC congress. The ally that currently generates the most doubts in the PSOE is Podemos, after 90% of its membership has voted in favor of the leadership’s proposal to break relations with Israel and lower rents by 40%. The socialists consider their requests unviable. Sources from the PSOE leadership affirm that “it does not enter their heads that ( Podemos ) will fall out of the agreement if it is reached with the rest of the groups.”
While Junts asks Congress for gestures, in Barcelona the parliamentary group has shown enormous anger at the Palau de la Generalitat. This Monday, Illa received the president of the Parliament, Josep Rull, and several leaders of the parliamentary groups for the first time since taking office. Government sources assure that these were protocol interviews. Mònica Sales, the parliamentary spokesperson for Junts, has considered this delay a lack of respect when she has already met the King seven times and has accused Illa of being a branchist president, of wanting to “denationalize Catalonia”, which is a “shame “that hides the flag and that he has excluded Puigdemont from his meetings in the round with the former presidents. “He wants to exclude and erase it as he did with 1-O. He continues to apply the 155 that he defended so much,” Sales said.
ERC and the commons, Illa’s investiture partners, have recalled that they will monitor compliance with the agreed agreements. Marta Vilalta, Republican spokesperson, has warned that, without specificity in the financing model, there will be no steps “in anything else.” “That’s the key. The Minister of Economy (Alícia Romero) knows it and Illa knows it. The ball is in their court,” he warned. “Our votes are not guaranteed,” warned Jéssica Albiach, who demands substantial improvements in housing policies to approve the accounts. Vox and Aliança Catalana have refused to go to the Palau. Illa’s appointment with the popular Alejandro Fernández has been postponed due to scheduling problems to this Thursday.
