“I would bet more, since we are talking about casinos, why not rather than why not,” acknowledged the Minister of Economy and Hisenda, Natàlia Mas, when asked if the Hard Rock tourism and leisure project will end up being done. “Nothing has moved for 12 years and perhaps 12 more years will pass without anything moving,” he insisted to cast doubt on the project planned for Vilaseca i Salou (Tarragona), the main obstacle for the commons to join. to support the budgets of the Generalitat, prosper.
After the formation led by Jéssica Albiach yesterday presented an amendment to the entire Catalan accounts, agreed between ERC and the PSC, precisely by Hard Rock, the head of Economy and History of the Generalitat has pointed out, in an interview in The Cafè d’Idees of La 2 and Ràdio 4, which is a type of project that “expands a lot over time and ends up poisoned”, that “does not fit” in the Catalonia of 2024 and has insisted on separating it from the Government and budgets.
For Mas, the continuity of the Hard Rock “is not a political decision” nor “has anything to do with budgetary items”, which is why he has asked the community for “common sense” and “to think about the people.” The councilor has indicated that the Government has a “small and very regulated part” to do with the project. “There are some steps regulated by law that not taking them would have economic and legal consequences,” warned Mas, for whom “we cannot do anything other than follow certain steps.”
“Does this mean that the project will go ahead, that it will be a reality? She doesn’t want to say it,” stressed the councilor, who has warned that citizens “cannot understand how this issue monopolizes the debate so much.” “It cannot be that we focus the debate on an issue external to the budgets,” Mas insisted to call on the common people to abandon “the red lines because the one who ends up being harmed is the citizens.”
Furthermore, the councilor has emphasized the importance of approving the 2024 accounts since, in her opinion, the conditions, in reference to the reintroduction of the deficit objectives set by the European Commission, will change shortly, so that the room for expansion of spending is now greater than it may be in the future.
The commons, which yesterday presented an amendment to the entire Catalan accounts, demand in order to withdraw it that the Government definitively discard the project that must be built in Vila-seca and Salou, pending the urban master plan (PDU). In this regard, the president of the Generalitat, Pere Aragonès, reiterated this Wednesday, in the Government control session in Parliament, that “there is not a single euro” in the accounts for the Hard Rock and has warned that if he does what what they ask of him and he discards it, the PSC would get out of the agreement and the accounts would not be able to move forward.
To reverse this Tuesday’s decision, the Government and the Commons have one week before the amendments to the entire Catalan Chamber are voted on on March 13, the first procedure for the accounts to continue their course. until final validation. If this vote is not passed, the budgets would be returned and the Government would have the option of trying again or giving up and keeping the 2023 budgets extended.
Another possibility is to agree on the budgets with Junts, but the Minister of Ecomomia has ruled out the tax cuts proposed by the post-convergents. For Mas, the fiscal part of Junts “is not acceptable” because in his opinion, in the years to come “it would end with cuts in public services no matter what.” However, the councilor has acknowledged that “other measures can be accepted.” “If there is a will we can understand each other,” she stressed.
