A week ago, the president of the Generalitat Pere Aragonès began the first contacts with the opposition parliamentary groups to talk about next year’s budgets, some incipient contacts with PSC, Junts, the CUP and the commons among which, in reality, The Government is aware that it could only reissue the budget agreement in force, with the socialists and En Comú Podem. But both partners have already warned the president that there will be no way to repeat the agreement if he does not first comply with what was agreed for this exercise, and the PSC, above all, sets the fulfillment of two of the great projects that it fought a year ago in exchange of their support: Hard Rock and the B-40.
In a press conference from the Parliament, the PSC spokesperson, Alícia Romero, emphasized these two projects, pointing out that for her party it is “essential” that they be finalized in the agreed terms” if the Government wants to count on the PSC to the new budgets.
“We are worried. We know that there will not be 100% compliance with the (current) agreement, but we would like a good part, the bulk, to be executed,” said Romero, who immediately cited the signing of the agreement to develop the B-40 and the approval. of the Urban Master Plan (PDU) of the Vilaseca and Salou complex, the Hard Rock, as “important projects for the country”, and therefore “it is essential that they be completed in the agreed terms”.
The socialists have been closely monitoring the degree of compliance with the budget pact for weeks. Since September, they have made successive reports on the matter, emphasizing the delays and low execution, while the Government has responded with studies that point in the opposite direction, highlighting the high degree of implementation of the measures.
At the beginning of October, the socialists placed the percentage of measures implemented at 16%, although the vast majority of the 281 actions reflected in the agreement were underway. The Government took advantage of this fact, highlighting that 96% of the agreed measures were already underway or have been completed. But there is less than a month and a half left until the end of the year and the PSC hopes for an acceleration to “recover some confidence” that will allow them to sit down again to talk about other budgets, because for now, “distrust” and “disbelief” dominate. .
The socialists place the B-40 and the Hard Rock as a priority because they are two projects that have generated great internal controversy in ERC. In the first case, the Government reluctantly agreed to sign the agreement and financing agreement that guaranteed the drafting of the project. To date, only the protocol for the continuation of the road and the management tasks (914 million euros) has been signed with the Central Executive, which indicated that the deadline for signing the agreement was four months, so it should have been signed already, in the first week of November. Socialist sources indicate that both parties are still negotiating.
In the case of the Hard Rock, the agreement indicated that during 2023 the processes related to the start of the project would be completed, prior final approval from the PDU, during the first half of 2023, and maintain the availability of the land. Following the agreement, the Government reaffirmed its commitment to the project after the Health Minister, Manel Balcells, expressed his hope that the promoters would abandon the project. The forecast is that the PDU will pass through the Comissió d’Urbanisme de Catalunya before the end of this year.
Beyond these projects, the PSC is not so demanding in the other major project that monopolized the budget negotiations: the expansion of the El Prat airport. In this case, the socialists point out that the commission that must be set up between the Government and the Generalitat still has time to do so, and “if it is established on January 15, nothing will happen.” Romero alleges that in this case, the agreement is easier to comply with than in the other two projects.
In any case, the Government now has its hands tied for a few days if it wanted to accelerate the fulfillment of both commitments as a result of the new investiture. The formation of the new Government, with the possible repercussions on senior ministerial positions, could be delayed for a few weeks.
What does not allow delays is the drought situation in Catalonia. In this regard, the PSC maintains a critical but constructive tone. Romero has pointed out that “any responsible party must support the Government” in this situation because “it means helping Catalonia”, especially when there are restrictive situations, but he has warned that “this is not incompatible with ERC saying what they have done because “We have spent 13 years in which Junts and ERC have governed and have not planned and hence the problems.” The PSC presses but does not drown in this matter and limits itself to denouncing that “it has not been planned well”, which shows that “the Government manages inefficiently, is not agile and has difficulty anticipating.”
