While the Government sent the draft budget for 2023 to the Parliament, so that it can begin the mandatory procedures after the agreement with the PSC, the Socialists wrapped themselves in the praise of employers and unions for an agreement “between different”, which “breaks the block ” and that allows “to respond to social needs from political stability”.
The leader of the opposition and the PSC, Salvador Illa, has met with the top leaders of Foment del Treball, Josep Sánchez Llibre; Pimec, Antonio Canete; CC.OO., Camil Ros; UGT, Javier Pacheco, and from the Third Sector, Francina Alsina. And after the meeting, in Parliament, everyone celebrated that an agreement has finally been reached and that Catalonia can have budgets this year, an act of “political responsibility” that they have been demanding for a long time and that they have valued for the moment. economic crisis due to high inflation.
But in addition to the socioeconomic achievement of having more resources to invest in reindustrialization, health or education, everyone has agreed on the political significance of this agreement. Javier Pacheco has elaborated on this by pointing out that the agreement “sends a clear message to Catalonia and Spain: it breaks blocks and gives the possibility for different parties to reach an agreement”, which constitutes “a powerful political message” to “reinforce the capacity and the autonomy of Catalonia”.
Alsina agreed on the diagnosis, with a call to the parties demanding that the “spirit” of this agreement, which is based on “consensus and work between different parties”, continue in the coming months. For the president of the Third Sector, the “critical” situation requires it, because “we must respond to social needs from political stability.”
The employers valued the agreement reached, especially in relation to the promotion of infrastructures that had been on standby for years, such as the B-40, the Hard Rock or the expansion of El Prat airport. However, both Sánchez Llibre and Cañete have taken the opportunity to put on the table a demand that this year’s accounts do not contemplate but that they hope will be included during the parliamentary process of the project: the tax reduction.
From Foment and Pimec they have called for “a debate” on taxation that the unions understand in the opposite direction. Sánchez Llibre has lamented that “we have an increase in tax pressure”, for which he has advocated tackling this issue “because we do not live isolated from the world”. And Cañete has lamented the “non-competitive taxation” of Catalonia, and that “we will have to put it on the table” because “it needs dialogue and the search for consensus.”
The unions, for their part, have pointed out the need to hold a global debate on taxation but taking into account how many resources are needed, in this case in Catalonia, to pay for public services and taking into account the existing levels of inequality and poverty. . Ros has included in the debate the financing model that Catalonia needs.
