It was a demand from ERC to Pedro Sánchez to facilitate the approval of the general budgets: the transfer of more than 900 million euros to the Generalitat so that it can carry out pending State investments in key infrastructures in Catalonia. Yesterday the Councilor of the Presidency, Laura Vilagrà, again claimed this amount when she was reminded, in the press conference following the meeting of the Executive Council, that the route of the Northern roundabout that runs along the B-40 to improve the connection between Terrassa and Sabadell is still to be signed.
Vilagrà assured that the Government has received a new document from Moncloa on the North Roundabout and that they want to study the last details. Only the stamp is missing. But it was at this point that the Minister pointed out that “in parallel” the Catalan Executive has agreed on some investments, unrelated to the B-40, for which the 914 million that the State committed to is missing. It sounded like a condition sine qua non, despite Vilagrà denying it.
In detail, it is 384 million euros to improve the C-32 in the Maresme; 250 million for AP-7 and AP-2 accesses; on the Pyrenean axis road, the N-260, which needs 260 million, and another 20 million for interchanges to improve communications via train.
These demands run parallel to the pact that the Government signed with the PSC for the B-40 to approve the budgets of the Generalitat for 2023. An infrastructure that Pere Aragonès had to take on at great cost.
It was a negotiation that brought the Government to the limit. For the next budgets, those of 2024, the Government has set Junts as a priority partner. The PSC and the commons would have to wait. “We need to work intensively together”. Vilagrà vadeixar is very clear that he places the post-convergents in the pole to negotiate the budgets of the Generalitat for 2024. The statement is in the logic of ERC these days, the party to which he belongs. Vilagrà assured that “the objective is to work first with Junts; the machinery is in motion.”
