Esquerra has hinted this afternoon that the negotiation for the Catalan accounts for 2024 is close to a resolution. “This should be the week of the Generalitat’s budget (…). This week should serve to advance the budget agreement,” Republican spokesperson Raquel Sans stated at a press conference. Some statements that are framed more in a possible announcement of a pact with the PSC – not so much with the commons – than in statements to pressure the political formations involved. Today the Government is more likely to reach an understanding with those of Salvador Illa and Jéssica Albiach than with Junts or the CUP.
Sans did not want to specify what he was referring to with his words: if the Government is willing to approve them in the Consell Executiu even without having sufficient support, if a first pact with the Catalan socialists is approaching or also adding other political formations, necessary to obtain an absolute majority in Parliament. “If it were all at once, fantastic,” the ERC spokesperson limited herself to commenting, and then added that her party believes that “steps must be taken to be able to have these budgets available and we will see how they are realized.” “We understand that things have to happen this week,” she said.
However, at the same time that ERC draws a scenario of a near agreement, it has also avoided denying the possibility of requesting the appearance in a parliamentary committee of the first secretary of the PSC, Salvador Illa, in the case of commissions for the sale of sanitary masks. which has involved the former top collaborator of former Transport Minister José Luis Ábalos, Koldo García. In 2020, when the events occurred, Illa was the Minister of Health. “We must go to the end, zero tolerance for corruption (…). Public officials must be inspected, as the Generalitat was inspected,” Sans stressed with respect to the former councilors Chakir el Homrani and Alba Vergés, top officials of the Treball and Afers Socials areas (with the residences originally in their charge). and Salut, respectively.
The ERC spokesperson recalled that Illa did not appear in the investigation commission of the Parliament of Catalonia on the covid pandemic, alleging that state charges are not subject to appearances by regional parliaments. “If the Congress of Deputies creates a commission, it will be interesting for all the public servants who have had responsibilities to give all the pertinent explanations,” Sans claimed.
ERC has not ruled out any possibility of clarifying everything that happened in the context of the pandemic and the sale of those masks with commissions “presumably someone could have gotten rich at the expense of the desperation that was experienced at that time.” “Therefore, we do not rule out any options regarding appearances, commissions,” said Sans.
Be that as it may, the Government has an issue on the table that divides its theoretical partners to approve the 2024 budgets: the Hard Rock recreational complex in Vila-seca and Salou. The PSC, at a press conference this afternoon, seemed to accompany Sans’ words. Its spokesperson, Elia Tortolero, has considered the Government of Pere Aragonès has “fulfilled” the main pending commitments for 2023, including promoting the Hard Rock project, and has revealed that the negotiation for a budget agreement is already “advanced.” On the other hand, the commoners reject Hard Rock outright and have warned that Aragonès will not have budgets otherwise Hard Rock will be “shelved forever.”
