A glass is a glass, a plate is a plate, and doors open and close. Yesterday Pere Aragonès opened one that seemed to have been closed a few days ago to the PSC for the negotiation of the budgets of the Generalitat for 2023 after Oriol Junqueras excluded him from any pact on Saturday. In the refusal of the president of Esquerra there were nuances: as long as those of Salvador Illa do not advance in favor of the “end of repression” and in the “defense of the exercise of self-determination”, there will be no agreements. And that includes new accounts. Aragonès, yesterday, in his press appearance after the first Consell Executiu with the ministers, all from ERC, avoided ruling out a negotiation with the PSC.
The president of the Generalitat always used the same formula to respond to the insistence of the journalists, eager to clarify whether he completely rejected those of Illa: “The priority is to approve the budgets with the groups that supported the investiture [Junts and the CUP ] and the previous budgets [Junts and the commons]. From here, we will continue working”. Aragonès asked to go “step by step” and not go into “speculation”. There was so much insistence in the press room to hear a yes or no to whether he rejects the PSC for the endorsement of the numbers that the president replied: “I refer to the thirty previous answers.”
A priori, the Government is not enough with the hypothetical support of the commons and the CUP to approve the accounts. But sources from the ERC leadership reiterate that they will not agree with the Catalan socialists until they advance in “the 80% consensus”, that is basically towards a referendum and the “end of the repression”. It is a condition for the budget of the Generalitat, but it is also valid for the Executive of the PSOE and United We Can and the general accounts of the State.
In fact, from the ERC leadership they place more conditions to negotiate the general budgets of the State. First, that “they be more ambitious”, and second, that the Government of Pedro Sánchez “comply with what it has not yet complied with the current budgets.” There is still work to be done: the degree of compliance with State investments in Catalonia during the first half of this year is 16% (if compensation to Abertis is not taken into account).
However, while the ERC-Junts coalition in the Government remained standing, the support of the Socialists had been rejected, although the then Minister of Economy, Jaume Giró, had established talks. The context is now different, and the game has been opened to the socialists.
Be that as it may, the postconvergents are no longer in the Government and they seem determined not to support the bills. They set a condition to speak: that Aragonès submits to a matter of trust.
The president does not even think about it. In fact, he pressures JxCat to approve some accounts that he had prepared until Friday Giró: “It would not be understood that Junts ruled itself out of the budgets it has prepared.” “Junts has decided to leave the Government. I understand that you will not abandon the citizenship of Catalonia. Let each one assume their responsibilities, ”he added.
If Aragonès seeks a budgetary dialogue with the post-convergent parties, it will be very complicated. The ERC-Junts relationship is cold right now. Members of the leadership are having personal conversations, but the 4×4 coordination group between the two parties has lost its meaning and is dead. Laura Vilagrà, Marta Vilalta, Josep Maria Jové and Sergi Sabrià, from ERC, and Jordi Turull, Jordi Puigneró, Albert Batet and Josep Rius, from JxCat, interacted through the Signal instant messaging application, where they had to put judgment. But he has not shown any signs of life since September 26, the day before the general policy debate held in Parliament.
The first difficulty that the new Government will have is to carry out the accounts. Aragonès took for granted that the Catalan Executive will not get them to come into force on January 1. Therefore, the current budgets would be extended, at least until the new ones are approved. The task now falls to the new Minister of Economy, Natàlia Mas.
Yesterday was the first day in the Executive Council for four of the seven directors. Joaquim Nadal was during the Maragall and Montilla governments. Manel Balcells, also in one of the tripartite governments. And Meritxell Serret was part of it from 2016 to 2017, with Carles Puigdemont. The general secretaries will also be 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 photo of this premiere, with all the chairs occupied by ministers appointed at the express wish of the president and ERC, shows all the members of the Catalan Executive smiling. The one of June 1, 2021, the first of the Aragonès legislature and with seven ministers of Junts, was very different, without posados. Besides, it was pandemic time and masks dominated.
At yesterday’s press conference, Aragonès expressed his satisfaction with the composition of the new Government – ??which he will report on at the next Parliamentary plenary session – and thanked the outgoing ministers for their work. Given the doubts expressed by other parties as to whether now, with the incorporation of former PSC and Podemos officials, it is also an independentista government, the president replied: “We are much more than independentistas. We work for progress, for social cohesion, for the whole of Catalonia, and we are also pro-European”. “I do not abandon, I do not desert or resign, on the contrary,” he added.
