The president of the Generalitat, Pere Aragonès, sees it as an absolute priority to approve in Parliament the budgets that saw the green light from the Government on Tuesday after agreeing on them with the PSC. But for this it is necessary that another group, especially the common ones, give support to the accounts. However, Jéssica Albiach’s party makes it a condition to stop the processing of the Hard Rock leisure and tourism project and the president pressures them, assuring that he cannot do it since, as he has said, those who approved it by law in 2014, in reference to to the PSC and CiU, continue to have a majority in the Parliament.
In an interview at the Cafè d’Idees on La 2, the president has expressed his conviction that they will reach an agreement with the commons “or with whoever” and has warned that “if the accounts are not approved in 15 days we will not have these resources, which will harm citizens while the Hard Rock will continue to be processed. In this sense, the Catalan president has asked himself “what is the point of the groups asking the Government to provide more resources if the budgets are not approved later”, accounts that, in his opinion, are better than the previous ones.
Furthermore, Aragonès has made it clear that the accounts do not contain a single item or an agreement for the Hard Rock, a project that, as he has assured, he does not know if it will be done or not, but of which he has warned that “at one point granted some licenses and private entities have acquired some rights”, so if the Generalitat backs down now “it would have to face important claims”. In any case, the president of the Generalitat has indicated that the Government will negotiate until the last minute. “We have to find a point of understanding,” he said.
The president of the Generalitat has also referred to the drought and in this sense has ruled out the proposal of four professional associations to connect the Ebro water supply in Tarragona with the supply network of the metropolitan area of ??Barcelona, ??while completely rejecting power cuts. supply in mouth water. “It does not make much sense to trust the supply of the Barcelona area to the Ebro basin, which also suffers episodes of drought,” warned the president, who has assured that water cuts will be avoided because the producing water through regeneration and desalination.
Asked about the money accumulated in the treasury of the Catalan Water Agency (ACA), which amounts to 540.7 million euros, according to La Vanguardia, Aragonès said that this sum will serve to pay for “all the works” that They are being put out to tender to deal with the drought and to help municipalities. “All works planned in the coming years must have the resources ready to be paid for,” he argued.
Regarding the amnesty that is being processed in Congress, Aragonès has said that he would not understand if Junts finally voted no to the bill. “If the political agreement is in place, the technical agreement in the legal field must be possible,” insisted Aragonès, who has warned that what should come out is a robust text that cannot be overturned by Spanish or European justice. “What we cannot do is put on the robe of judges and prevent any resource or mechanism that could delay the application of the law.”
Regarding the next meeting of the dialogue table between the central and Catalan governments, the president has calculated that it should take place before Easter because in the meeting he held in December with Pedro Sánchez they agreed that it had to be held during the first quarter of the year.
The president has once again insisted that the Catalan elections will be in February of next year and has reconfirmed that the Esquerra candidate will be him and not the president of the party, Oriol Junqueras. Regarding post-electoral pacts, the Catalan president has ruled out a pact with the PSC, after agreeing the accounts with the socialists, arguing that they do not share the independence ideology. However, he has not ruled out reaching an agreement with Junts again. “In this life very few things can be ruled out,” he argued.
After the outbreak of the Koldo case for alleged corruption in the sale of masks during the pandemic, the president has appeared very calm with what was done in the Catalan administration, which was then presided over by Quim Torra, although he recalled that the market was collapsed, that the Suppliers inflated prices and had to compete with other States for the acquisition of material. “Everything I know and what passed through my hands was done well,” said the Catalan president, who warned that this was an “every man for himself” and that people had to be hired as best they could. “I would do the same thing again,” he stressed.
