The budget agreement reached between the ERC Government and the PSC was interpreted by the right-wing parties as another rapprochement between independentistas and socialists (and therefore, Pedro Sánchez), which could eventually lead to a referendum in Catalonia . The leader of the PSC, Salvador Illa, has flatly ruled out this possibility, at the same time that he has denied that the issue was part of the talks to seal his support for the Catalan accounts.
Illa’s opposition in this area is nothing new, but today she has once again underlined it in statements to TV3. The binding self-determination consultation “will not be convened”, has guaranteed the president of the formation. “Aragonès and everyone knows it,” he added. According to Illa, the referendum has not appeared at any time during the negotiations.
In this way, it has responded to the darts of Alberto Núñez Feijóo, of the PP, and of Inés Arrimadas, of Cs, who yesterday linked the pact to a new concession to the independence movement. The popular leader warned of the possibility of a referendum after the ERC’s support for the PSOE in Congress, a relationship that has now “extended” to Catalan budgets. For Arrimadas, the agreement means that President Pedro Sánchez “is giving a free hand to prepare another referendum.”
Salvador Illa has said, yes, that his desire is for the dialogue table between governments to continue in 2023. Even so, he has appealed to Aragonès to bring together the so-called table between Catalan parties, a repeated demand from the Socialists and that It was one of the points that they agreed with the Republicans at the investiture of Pedro Sánchez, as Illa has been repeating.
The handshake between ERC and PSC, staged yesterday, was also read as a return of the tripartite left from various sectors of the independence movement, including Junts. Illa has denied the majority and has referred to what he highlighted yesterday at a press conference: “It is not a legislature agreement.” In this sense, he has insisted that his party is “building an alternative” to the Government of Pere Aragonès, a fact that is not “incompatible” with “reaching out to him”.
On the content of the agreements for the budgets, the president of the PSC has celebrated that the three proposals of which they have made the flag have been included: Hard Rock, B-40 and El Prat airport. For the latter, the term “enlargement” has been ignored and the term “modernization” has been chosen, which generates more comfort for the parties involved in the agreement. Both the ERC and the PSC interpret this concept differently, but they do agree to increase capacity, a fact that will be studied within a year, according to the agreed text. Illa has limited himself to saying that he will no longer talk about enlargement, as up to now, to stick to what the agreement makes explicit.
In the case of the Hard Rock leisure macro-complex, which will be located in the Camp de Tarragona, it has revealed that only the installation of a casino is planned. Regarding the fourth belt, he stressed that the country “wins”, after unraveling a project that “has been talked about for 30 years.”
