“The decrees are going to be approved,” they forcefully assure in the Government, despite not yet having guaranteed the simple majority necessary to be able to validate tomorrow the three decrees on which the arrival of another 10,000 million euros depends, among other issues. of European funds, the revaluation of contributory pensions to 3.8%, free public transport for young people or the reduction of VAT for basic foods. “We have absolute confidence that the decrees will be approved, and for this we are going to work until the last minute,” they insist in Moncloa, while highlighting that the negotiation with Junts remains open. “Nothing is broken, we continue negotiating,” they emphasize.
The Executive takes refuge in the demand to maintain maximum discretion so that the ongoing negotiation with Junts per Catalunya does not derail. For this reason, the Government spokesperson, Pilar Alegría, and the new Minister of Economy, Carlos Body, did not want this Tuesday, at the end of the Council of Ministers meeting, to establish a clear position on Junts’ demand to encourage the return of the companies that left Catalonia due to the acceleration of the independence process in 2017 as a condition to facilitate the parliamentary validation of the decrees tomorrow. Alegría and Cuerpo have limited themselves to reiterating, in the face of repeated questions from the press, that the Government will always guarantee the legal security of companies. From which it follows that the Executive, at least, does not contemplate imposing sanctions on companies that resist returning to Catalonia.
“If something characterizes this Government, it is that we always give maximum legal security to our companies,” stressed the minister spokesperson, Pilar Alegría. “The stability and security of the legal framework is fundamental,” confirmed the Minister of Economy, Carlos Body. And they have not wanted to budge from this defense of the guarantee of legal security.
In this regard, the PSOE spokesperson in Congress, Patxi López, said in a press conference that they are open to accepting amendments from the groups to the three decrees and facilitating the return of companies to Catalonia. Although asked about the sanctions, López has limited himself to saying that in his case they defend three fundamental “seats”: “making it easier” for companies to return to Catalonia, compliance with the Capital Companies Law – with emphasis on article 9 – and “guarantee” legal certainty. “In these parameters we are talking with Junts, to facilitate this return of companies,” he stressed.
At Moncloa they emphasize that the fact that Junts continues to sit at the negotiating table with the Government “is a good sign.” And they also trust that they will be able to achieve the support of Carles Puigdemont’s party tomorrow, since they assume that there will be no agreement with the Popular Party. “The PP already has a fixed position, and Feijóo does not have a negotiating attitude,” they highlight.
To all this, the former president of the Generalitat, Carles Puigdemont, has published a message on his social network in which he assures that “the ‘pressing’ of JxCat (also by the Government) will not work.” “No carrots, no blackmail. From no one. This is not the first time we have warned about it, but it seems that the Christmas break has softened the memory of some and it must be strengthened,” he assured.
Puigdemont’s words come partly as a reaction to the words of the Government spokesperson, Patrícia Plaja, who spoke at a press conference after today’s ordinary meeting of the Executive Council. Plaja has stated that the omnibus decrees that will be voted on this Wednesday in Congress “are necessary.” “We should not make too many gestures that could cause us to be deprived of the few resources that reach Catalonia,” added the spokesperson in relation to Junts’ request to sanction companies that do not return to Catalonia.
ERC already announced yesterday that it would vote in favor of all of them, although it will ask the Government that two of them, those relating to the anti-inflation package and labor measures, be processed as a bill to introduce changes once the three initiatives have been validated.
The Government has also assured that, contrary to what Junts claims, there are no conflicts of jurisdiction in these decrees. Plaja has stressed that this has been confirmed by the legal services of the Generalitat. Likewise, he has regretted that pacts reached by Aragonès and ERC, such as the transfer of the management of the minimum vital income (IMV), will remain in vain if the measures that the Government takes to Congress are not approved.
