Friday is the deadline for presenting amendments to the entire general budget of the State and Esquerra assures that he has not yet decided whether he will request the return of the accounts or not. For now, the Republicans warn the PSOE that they are “very far” from approving them basically for three reasons: the low rate of investment by the Government in Catalonia -during the first semester, 16% of what was budgeted-; that Pedro Sánchez’s project is not ambitious in social and economic terms, and that there is no progress in dejudicialization.
However, the fact that the ERC underlines that they have not decided whether or not to present an amendment to the entirety may respond to a staging. The Government of Pere Aragonès depends on the decision of the PSC to approve the budgets of the Generalitat and the exchange of favors can be repeated as it happened last year. The Barcelona City Council and the commons must also be added to the equation, so the game board is almost nailed to last year’s. Furthermore, the ERC could always withdraw that amendment even after submitting it. He would have time until minutes before the debate and vote on all the amendments to the entirety, scheduled for October 26 and 27.
In any case, Marta Vilalta, deputy general secretary of the ERC, has set a profile. He has reiterated this noon at a press conference that the current general budgets are not being met, that they “fall short in social and economic matters” while spending on defense and “military industry” are prioritized, and that no progress is being made in putting an “end to the repression”. And of all this, not only does she mark the Government as guilty, but also the PSC: “She cannot make it clear that it is not her political party that is governing the State.”
The Republican leader misses a greater collaboration of those of Salvador Illa in these three aspects. “If they want to be useful, as they want to show by extending their hand, let them start by complying with Catalonia. (…) They cannot extend their hand and at the same time withdraw it for other things”, he remarked. The PSC has been willing to negotiate the Catalan accounts for 2023, but the Government keeps the socialists in reserve pending what may happen with the CUP and the commons, despite the fact that the favorable vote of these two spaces is not enough to carry out some new budgets in Catalonia. “
ERC wants progress, but above all at the dialogue table between the Spanish and Catalan governments. The next meeting is scheduled for before the end of this year and the Republicans are waiting for the PSOE Government and United We Can to present a reform of the Penal Code in Congress, which among other aspects addresses the modification of the crime of sedition. Some changes that would have effects on all those who are still pending trial for 1-O.
