First the announcement, from Barcelona. Then the details, from Madrid. Thus, in two acts, is how ERC had designed the presentation of the new “singular” financing system for Catalonia announced yesterday by the Minister of Economy, Natàlia Mas, and which the central Government has rushed to deflate, avoiding, yes, a head-on crash.
What no one counted on when designing the plan was that the visit of the president of the Generalitat to the capital would take place after the early elections were announced. But in that context, and under the watchful eye of deputies from the PSOE and EH Bildu, Pere Aragonès has detailed the details of a proposal very similar to the Basque quota – to collect 100% of the taxes collected in the territory – as “base of a new bilateral relationship between the Spanish state and Catalonia that puts an end to the fiscal mistreatment” of the current model.
Aragonès assured during a Europa Press breakfast that the financing proposal, through which he aspires to fully collect all the taxes paid in the region – estimated at 52,000 million euros – “must be a milestone to overcome judicialization.” of the political conflict”. This Catalan agreement would contemplate a game to “contribute to equity between territories”, but through a mechanism “limited in time”, which could mean that for a time the quota to compensate for the fiscal deficit “suffered by the citizens of Catalonia”.
“In opinion polls, voters of all parties, from the CUP to Vox, passing through the rest of the political parties, the majority of all voters defend a similar model when asked about their preferences,” he said. indicated to invite the PSC to “join the defense of the interests of Catalonia” instead of “submitting to the interests of the State” even though the PSOE is now at the head of the central Government.
Regarding whether he believes that Junts will join the proposal, Aragonès has been convinced that it will. And for this reason he recalled that an initiative was approved in the Parliament to demand a unique financing law for Catalonia that would put an end to “the fiscal deficit”, and that it garnered the support of ERC, Junts, Comuns and the CUP.
The president of the Generalitat has established “bilaterality” as the basis of a “one-to-one negotiation” that guarantees the execution of this hypothetical system based on “respect.” “I am not going to negotiate for other territories. But I am also not going to accept that the resources that must reach the citizens of Catalonia be conditioned from other territories,” he assured in clear reference to the policies deployed by Isabel Díaz Ayuso in the Community that ” makes the speculative economy a source of pride.”
And, aware of the difficulties he will encounter on the part of PP, Vox and some socialist barons “who never fail”, he has defended that Catalonia does not understand impossible things. “They will do it motivated by the fear that Spain will break up, but many things that were drawn to us that way are reality today. Like the Amnesty law,” he argued.
In this sense, he has made it clear that the self-determination referendum continues to be an objective: “I am willing to agree on the conditions under which we would consider the result acceptable. I am willing to talk about the date, how to manage the results, that if they were by independence would generate great changes.
Aragonés has also defended that the leader Carles Puigdemont presents himself as a candidate in the regional elections and has considered that both Junts and the PSC should join his financing proposal because that is what his voters want.
Present at the event held at the Intercontinental hotel in Madrid were the Minister of Education and Sports and Government spokesperson, Pilar Alegría; the spokespersons for EH Bildu in Congress Mertxe Aizpurua and Jon Iñarritu; the spokesperson for the Left Parliamentary Group for Independence in the Senate, Sara Bailac; the Minister of Economy and Finance of the Generalitat, Natàlia Mas, and the Minister of Territory, Esther Capella, and the general secretary of UGT, Pepe Álvarez, among others.
