There are three conditions that Esquerra puts on the table for it to support the general budgets of the State: that they be more ambitious in social and economic matters, that what was planned to be invested in Catalonia with the current accounts be fulfilled, and that “the repression ”. In all of them, ERC misses a greater involvement of the PSC and pressures the Catalan socialists to make their demands effective. Moreover, they hold them responsible for all these shortcomings.
The three issues are essential, because greater collaboration would open doors to the approval of the Moncloa accounts. But also to give a compelling reason to those of Oriol Junqueras to accept the help of the PSC with the budgets of the Generalitat. This is how they admit it from the republican ranks, while pointing to dejudicialization as an essential factor.
A clear example of the shortcomings that ERC sees with respect to the Catalan socialists is the complete transfer of Rodalies. Years go by and the commitment does not become effective, although, as the Republicans point out, the Minister of Transport, Raquel Sánchez, is from the PSC. For the fulfillment of only 16% during the first semester of the promised investments in Catalonia, the Republicans also blame the PSC. The same happens with the reform of the crime of sedition. Miquel Iceta, president of the PSC, is present at the dialogue table between the Spanish and Catalan governments. “And dejudicialization is still green,” they argue from the ranks of ERC.
Esquerra presses to the point that it has left in the air if it presents an amendment to the totality of the general budgets. The deadline to register it in Congress ends on Friday. However, the return of the accounts can be withdrawn even minutes before the vote.
The end of the year is approaching and the reform of the crime of sedition and rebellion continues to stall. While Pere Aragonès urges Pedro Sánchez to present a proposal to Congress, the President of the Government argues that he is not carrying it, because there is not the majority necessary to approve it. Salvador Illa is in favor of the modification, but he himself assured weeks ago that he was leaving it in the hands of Sánchez.
“The problem is that the PSC is on the side of Moncloa, when it should also assess, and at the same time, the consensus of 80% that exists in Catalonia”, explain ERC sources. In these consensuses would be a referendum and “the end of the repression”.
ERC has tried in recent days to squeeze those of Illa so that, in turn, they push Moncloa to carry out this reform, in addition to other modifications that could include the unblocking of the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ), new components of the Constitutional Court or a reform in the Penal Code that goes beyond retouching sedition and rebellion.
In this sense, it should be remembered that the Republicans Josep Maria Jové and Lluís Salvadó – who have been considered the architects of the referendum on 1-O – are not prosecuted for sedition at all, but for embezzlement, prevarication and disclosure of secrets, which can carry heavy prison sentences.
There is another problem with the reform of the Penal Code. According to sources, Sánchez would agree to reduce the penalties for the crime of sedition, but at the cost of aggravating those for disobedience. He would imply improving the conditions, for example, of Carles Puigdemont or Marta Rovira, but it would endanger Roger Torrent and the other pro-independence members of the Parliamentary Table that he chaired, now prosecuted for disobedience. At most, today they would mean fines and disqualifications.
For Sánchez it is not easy to carry out a modification like this either. Municipal elections are close. They are in May and will coincide with elections in some autonomous communities, such as Castilla-La Mancha and Aragón. Life would be complicated for presidents Emiliano García-Page and Javier Lambán in the face of any movement in favor of independence.
Meanwhile, Illa reaches out to Aragonés to negotiate the Catalan budgets. But the president puts the brakes on him. Also Oriol Junqueras and the assistant general secretary of Esquerra, Marta Vilalta. “First they have many things to do in the field of the fight against repression,” said the ERC leader two Saturdays ago. “They cannot extend their hand and at the same time withdraw it for other things,” Vilalta said yesterday.
The PSC, however, insists on decoupling the State budgets with those of the Generalitat and dejudicialization. Also the common ones. The Socialists made it clear yesterday that “they don’t have to mix” because “they are different negotiations in two different scenarios that have never been linked, and they don’t have to be now”, and the commons agree that the dialogue table and the State budgets “must advance in parallel and not be conditioned among themselves”.
