“No one who has a real will to move forward can oppose a budget that puts all the country’s resources to improve the lives of citizens.” Pere Aragonès continues to pressure the commons to be willing to facilitate the 2024 budgets once the agreement with the PSC is sealed. He did it again this morning in a press appearance from the Palau de la Generalitat, expressly highlighting, on the one hand, that the accounts are social, on the other, that the Hard Rock project “does not depend on the Government.” 43.7 billion euros of spending are planned in the accounts.
That this recreational complex project in Vila-seca and Salou be abandoned is the sine qua non of En Comú Podem for the Government to obtain its support for the budgets. Its leader in the Parliament, Jéssica Albiach, warned yesterday that until the urban development plan is withdrawn, her party will not begin to negotiate the numbers for 2024. However, the commons have contacted the Catalan Executive several times for weeks. and today and tomorrow they have two appointments planned with the Catalan Cabinet.
Aragonès has reiterated to En Comú Podem that Hard Rock “is a procedure that follows its calendars, that is highly technically complex and that does not depend on the Government, it depends on the private sector promoters who participate.” Furthermore, the president of the Generalitat recalled that the preliminary draft budget “does not include any euro, any measure, nor does it incorporate any agreement related to Hard Rock.” And immediately he tried to convince the common people by attesting that the budgets respond, in his opinion, to the main demands of those from Albiach: “What it does incorporate are improvements for public health, to reduce waiting lists, to improve access to housing – and what if it incorporates – to improve the educational environment.”
“The budgets should not have to be sacrificed for other debates that have no relation,” he added before stating that “they are better than the previous budgets, there is no reason why this is also possible” an understanding that the commons have maintained to facilitate the accounts for 2020, 2022 and 2023.
Today’s words from Aragonès sound like a measure of pressure. It is also true that just after his appearance the Government met in an extraordinary Executive Council to approve the preliminary draft and take the numbers to the Parliament. On March 13 they will undergo the first litmus test, when the full debate will take place. If it passes, the 2024 accounts would continue their parliamentary processing until their possible final approval, in mid-April.
The head of the Government has also made an effort to highlight that the budgets are “the highest in history”, and that they would be even higher, he said, if there were no fiscal deficit. In fact, one of the objectives that the president has set in this last year of the legislature is to negotiate with Pedro Sánchez a “unique financing” for Catalonia. However, Aragonès has not dared to ensure that these budgets, if they go ahead, will be the last ones without a fiscal deficit. “I would like to, but it doesn’t depend on me. The State Government is responsible,” he stated again.
