The commons have approved the last two budgets of the Generalitat and already have an agreement for those of 2023. Their leader in Parliament, Jéssica Albiach (València, 1979), attends La Vanguardia after having reached an agreement with President Pere Aragonese.
They have become a regular partner of the Executive for the accounts. Does that reduce options for establishing itself as an alternative?
In no case. It’s one of the things I’m most proud of. We are changing the political culture of how budgets are understood. We come from a culture according to which they are approved only when yours are in the Government or when there is no electoral year. People who need public services do not understand or do not share that this happens because there is an electoral call…
Is there an exchange of stickers with the Barcelona accounts?
They are parallel negotiations, and we cannot use budgets as a thrown weapon.
What does the fine print of your agreement with the Government say?
It is not our electoral program, but it connects with common sense and the needs of the citizenry. We have managed to reorient the priorities that the Government had with important advances in energy transition, housing and health, which is what has cost us the most to achieve. Catalonia becomes the territory that invests the most in primary care, with 20%, and it will reach 25% in 2025. In addition, we almost doubled the 300 million that Aragonès announced in the general policy debate for the social shock plan .
The Hard Rock does not appear in the document. Have they agreed not to give impetus to the project?
We have agreed that the agreement we have signed will reach the vote intact. And that the agreements that the Government closes with other groups are not contradictory with the spirit of ours. This project goes against the spirit of the agreement and against the reports of the Government, which say that it is unsustainable.
The PSC says that the Hard Rock, the Ronda del Vallès or the extension of El Prat are “fundamental”.
Minister Laura Vilagrà already said this week that issues such as Hard Rock went against the Government’s reports. It is the other groups that have to position themselves on the only agreement there is, which is ours.
Are they afraid that the pact that the Government reaches with the other groups will leave theirs on paper? Some points must go through the plenary session of Parliament and PSC and Junts complain about taxation.
With this position I see the PSC closer to the employers, to Foment, than to the coalition government of Pedro Sánchez. If it knocks down the budgets, it will knock down measures promoted by the central coalition government, such as the tax on large fortunes or discounts on public transport.
In the last electoral campaign they talked about productive sovereignty and green reindustrialization, in a context of a pandemic, but in their budget agreement with the Government these issues do not appear.
In Catalonia we have signed the National Pact for Industry, in which there are important advances. In the energy transition part there is a line focused on changing the production model and we are talking about dual professional training that has to push industries to speed up training for new students and a 200-hour recycling and training program for all Vocational Training teachers. There is also a line from the Servei d’Ocupació Català (SOC) that goes in this direction and next week we will approve the green neighborhoods law, which talks about energy efficiency and will allow speeding up the energy efficiency part of buildings that are in worst conditions in Catalonia. In addition, that will allow there to be quality occupation.
Are you in favor of bonuses and similar measures to promote the relocation of companies and industries?
We need to reindustrialize the country. We have seen how, by not accelerating in terms of renewables, we have lost opportunities such as the battery factory, which will go to Sagunto. One of the reasons is that we were not sufficiently prepared in terms of renewable energy. There is a lot of talk about green hydrogen. Right now it is not competitive, but it is the future, and I want to insist that in order to be leaders in green production we need to deploy renewable energy. Catalonia has been a desert in the last decade. With this agreement we give it a boost and take the first step to bring Catalonia up to date. Here it does not reach 20% and the Spanish average is 45% and there are communities such as Castilla y León that exceed or are close to 80% of renewable energy production.
Would it be okay with you to have elections next year? The Government only has 33 deputies.
Catalonia does not need elections, but rather good budgets to face the crisis. It is also necessary that the Government in absolute minority of ERC understand this situation of weakness and that the rest of the forces understand that making opposition does not mean no to everything. It is the easiest position, but our job as politicians is to dialogue and reach agreements.
If a budget agreement with the PSC and you is confirmed, do you think the foundations will be laid for a new tripartite after the breakup of Junts and ERC?
With this budget pact, new majorities are beginning to consolidate and it could be positive for the country. For too long, the progressive policies that Catalonia needed had been held back. We are on the way to configuring and consolidating progressive majorities for which we have worked since the beginning.
They supported repealing the crime of sedition, but criticized the haste with that of embezzlement.
A good agreement has been reached. In 2015, the PP made an ad hoc reform to persecute the independence movement and turned the crime of embezzlement into a mixed bag. During the negotiation, of which we were aware but that ERC and PSOE have carried out, we saw an amendment from each one. The ERC reform left certain blind spots, and cases such as the ERE or the Kitchen plot could have reductions in penalties. With the PSOE transaction we avoid those blind spots. We put order to the crime of embezzlement and avoid certain interpretations that opened the door to impunity for the corrupt.
Were you closer to the ERC amendment or the PSOE one?
At the midpoint is virtue. I think a good agreement has been reached.
Has Jaume Asens gone for free?
It is impossible for him to go free because he is president of the confederal group and a member of the executive of Catalunya en Comú. They are decisions that are made collectively in the political space.
Is everyone in your space comfortable with the renovation?
Evidently. That is why we have voted in the affirmative.
And your electorate?
We always said that we would be clear and clear, and in no case does this embezzlement reform mean opening the door to impunity for the corrupt.
How do you assess the government’s clash with the conservative bloc of the Judiciary and the PP?
What happened on Thursday is very serious. For a few hours, the seat of popular sovereignty, the legislative power, was sequestered in the hands of some judges whose mandate had expired. The conclusion is obvious: the PP, with the connivance of a part of the judiciary, tried to launch a coup against democracy to ensure its own privileges. It is the clear sign of an impotent right wing that finds it increasingly difficult to govern by winning at the polls.
Many of the Government’s measures come out only with the investiture block. If the right adds up, everything can be dismantled.
That is why it is very important that this last year of the legislature that the central government has left to further accelerate all those laws of the coalition agreement that are pending approval. It is essential to do a lot of pedagogy and approve courageous policies. I think that in the pandemic and in this inflation crisis we have lived up to it. We are one of the countries where inflation is least affected thanks to government measures, but progress must be made and I would like to emphasize with special emphasis the need for a law that regulates rental prices in our country, if it is not approved it is because the PSOE does not want. It is important that we take advantage to advance in this last year of the legislature. To the extent that we demonstrate the utility for the majority of citizens, it will be reflected at the polls. The electoral result of the next generals will depend on the work we do in the last year.
How do you see the tensions between Podemos and Yolanda Díaz?
They will not find me in internal noise and reproaches. Yolanda Díaz is the candidate of the entire political space, this is how she has been recognized by all parties and Yolanda Díaz has a daily dialogue with the general secretary of Podemos, Ione Belarra. All the decisions that are promoted from the central government are shared.
What expectations do you have for the municipal elections? What are your goals?
We have achieved a confluence agreement between Comunes and Podemos, which is one of the things we are most satisfied with, and it has been shown that when sister forces share objectives, it remains to go separately and it does not make sense. The objective is to repeat in the mayoralties in which we are already present, where we are already present in the City Council and in the municipal government, we are going for the mayoralty and to have a presence in all the municipalities and cities that are key for Catalonia.
Will further progress be made in the integration of Podemos in the commons?
The situation we have, at least for me, is fully satisfactory. I am also part of Podemos and I am the coordinator of the commons. Beyond the formulas, the situation is satisfactory and we concur together in the different elections that exist, at all levels, but not only that, the work in each municipality is side by side. Therefore the situation is satisfactory.
