The Hard Rock tourist complex, planned in Tarragona and which President Pere Aragonès assures that he cannot paralyze, blocks the possible agreement for the Catalan budgets between the Government and En Comú Podem, and although both parties met yesterday in Palau for two hours without any great progress. The commons demand that the Government apply the Parliament’s resolution to stop the project due to the drought and see “little receptivity” and “lack of ambition” in the country’s challenges.
“We will not lower ourselves from this condition,” say common sources about the Hard Rock, who assure that the underlying problem is that the Government “is buying the entire agenda” from the PSC.
The leader of the commons in the Parliament, Jéssica Albiach, believes that the president should “put limits on Mr. Illa and lead the budget negotiations,” and in her opinion the Hard Rock, a project that the Republicans take on although it is not to their liking. , is the height of this complacency. “We no longer know what the ERC model is for so many concessions it makes to the PSC,” laments Albiach.
The postures are castled. The commons demand that the Government bury the tourism project, but the Catalan Executive alleges that it cannot hinder an administrative procedure that could see the light of day before the summer.
Aragonès recalled yesterday from Palau that Hard Rock does not have any allocation in the accounts and that “it does not depend on the Government, but on private promoters.” And immediately he tried to convince the common people by attesting that the budgets respond, in his opinion, to their main demands: “Incorporate improvements for public health, reduce waiting lists, improve access to housing and improve the educational environment.” ”.
However, the Government is optimistic. They point out that En Comú Podem has provided the last three budgets presented: those for 2020, 2022 and 2023.
But Albiach sees the president’s arguments for not stopping Hard Rock as fallacious: “There is nothing more political than urban planning,” and, therefore, “Hard Rock does not depend on a technical decision. “It is a political decision, and the president should not hide behind excuses, but rather lead this negotiation,” he claimed yesterday on TV3.
The Government’s decision to approve the budgets in the Consell Executiu to begin the parliamentary process is understood as a measure of pressure towards the commons, pressure that those in Albiach shake off by warning that the responsibility for obtaining support lies with the Government.
They also claim that there have been “calls” for the leader of Sumar, Yolanda Díaz, to intercede and the common people to give in. “It was not a good idea,” says a party source, who recalls that their political autonomy in Catalonia is protected.
In Comú Podem it has become a protagonist in budget negotiations. The spotlight is on Albiach’s group, which is necessary for its final validation, unlike last year, when they closed an agreement with the Government long before Salvador Illa’s PSC, and it was the latter who captured the attention.
Natàlia Mas, Minister of Economy, presented the budgets in Parliament yesterday. Despite yesterday’s unsuccessful meeting, there is time until March 13 to hammer out an agreement, the day on which the amendments to the entire draft bill will be voted on, but those in the commons fear that, if there is an agreement, it will come at the last minute. On the other hand, the situation generated makes many in the Parliament think that those from Albiach have no real interest in approving the budgets.
