If on Saturday Oriol Junqueras completely ruled out any new pact with the PSC, today Pere Aragonès has by no means closed the door to the Socialists to approve the 2023 budgets. In the press conference after the first Consell Executiu with the new ministers , the president has placed all the pressure on JxCat and has avoided answering directly to the question of whether he rejected those of Salvador Illa, always resorting to the formula of marking as “priority” the agreement with those parliamentary groups that favored his investiture (Junts and the CUP) and those who carried out the current numbers (Junts and the common ones). “From here we will see what are the subsequent steps that must be carried out.”
“I think it would be irresponsible not to support budgets that were good last week, simply because the decision has been made to leave the government,” said Aragonès about Junts.
The words of the head of the Government contrast with those of Junqueras four days ago. “It is evident that the PSC is not committed to ending the repression, at least to the extent that it continues to endorse a good part of the repression that exists,” argued the ERC president on Saturday while adding that “many PSC leaders turned red hands applauding our incarceration.” To the Catalan socialists, no water, Junqueras came to say. The leader of the Republicans even hinted that he would not mind an extension of the 2022 accounts.
In fact, Aragonès has also partially amended his own words. On August 21, in an interview on ACN, he assured that “it would not be coherent” to agree on the accounts with the PSC, in a context in which Junts’ ultimatums were still green.
On the contrary, Aragonès has not shown anything forceful. “My priority is that the budgets are approved with the support of the groups that have supported the investiture or the last budget. Starting with Junts”, he highlighted at the same time that he remembered that Jaume Giró was until Friday the minister of JxCat that he created.
Aragonès appeared this afternoon after the inauguration of the seven new councilors this morning. The president of the Generalitat has met the Executive Council already without Junts and with all the seats occupied by ERC. Today, the number of general secretaries, the number two of each department, has also been announced: Josep Maria Vilarrúbia (Economy and Finance); Bernat Costas (External Action and European Union); Joaquim Nin (Research and Universities); Tamara Garcia de la Calle (Interior); Joan Jaume Oms (Territory); Mercè Salvat (Health); Oriol Amorós (Social Rights) and Jordi Martinoy (Justice, Rights and Memory).
The president of the Generalitat has assured that the budget project is “very, very advanced”, “practically completed” he has highlighted, for which he considers that it is a good starting point to try to get it approved in Parliament.
What Aragonès is clear about is that the new numbers, if they go ahead, will not be in a timely manner. He has ruled out that they come into force on January 1, because “the conselleries need a minimum time to enter the project and make small adjustments if necessary.”
