From the majority of the 52% pro-independence party, it has gone to that of the 52% made up of the PSC, ERC and the commons. Or what is almost the same, from the fragile unit of 74 independentista deputies to that of the 74 of various colors. Of course, taking as a premise and keeping in mind that the budget agreement that allowed yesterday to pass the first procedure in Parliament for its final approval is only “punctual and concrete”, as the Minister of Economy, Natàlia Mas, stressed, while the one that they forged in 2021 ERC with Junts and the CUP intended to last throughout the legislature. There is nothing left of the latter, and yesterday those who curiously added up to 52% –and this time adding only parliamentary forces– were republicans, socialists and commoners.
That of 52% pro-independence is a calculation that the ANC was first commissioned to bring to light two years ago. It only comes out if instead of adding the percentage of valid votes, the votes for candidacies are referred to (therefore, the blank vote is excluded), whether or not they are in Parliament. With the same method PSC, ERC and common have the same figure.
Yesterday’s vote for the 2023 budget and the accompanying law, with 74 votes from the PSC, ERC and the common allies to reject the amendments to the entirety presented by Junts, Vox, the CUP, Cs and PP, coincided with the exactly two years after the elections that allowed Pere Aragonès to become president of the Generalitat months later. The Republican presented his candidacy to “make it possible to complete independence.”
Since then, Pere Aragonès’ pedal tricycle has been losing wheels. First, the anti-capitalists, soon, with the negotiation for the 2022 budgets. It was the first blow to 52%. In October of last year, that of Junts, when he got out of the vehicle. Second hit. The replacement wheels have been found by the ERC Government in the PSC and En Comú Podem. Yesterday, for the first time, this “specific” substitution was recorded in Parliament with the most important law of the entire legislature: the budgets of the Generalitat.
The Catalan Executive only has the 33 Esquerra seats to try to do during the legislature. Mas tried to show post-convergent countries and countries that with budgets that exceed 41,000 million euros of financial capacity for the first time and with an increase compared to last year of 3,842 million, they can help take steps towards the goal of self-determination , in addition to the economic injection that they represent to alleviate the effects of high inflation.
He did not convince Junts or the CUP. They think the opposite. “These budgets are a brake to advance towards independence,” said the spokesperson for the former, Mònica Sales, because they are agreed with “autonomist deputies.” “You alone [a Aragonès] have gone from the pro-independence government to the autonomist tripartite”, for which “you lose the pro-independence movement”, the deputy released.
Sales insisted at the end of his speech: “These are the assumptions of the resignation.”
Eulàlia Reguant, from the CUP, was not far behind: “The employers’ association and the PSC have managed to place the debate far from defending (…) the process of self-determination and independence.” “Mr. Illa, congratulations (…), you have managed to introduce all the bullshit from the employers’ association Foment del Treball into the budgets of the Generalitat”, he expressed in reference to the Hard Rock projects, the future of El Prat airport and the layout of the B-40 as it passes between Terrassa and Sabadell.
Natàlia Mas reminded Junts and the CUP that the blocking of the budget would have accentuated the economic grievances of the financing of Catalonia, according to what she said. “I invite you to abandon maximalist positions, all or nothing, black or white,” she stressed.
Marta Vilalta, ERC spokesperson, insisted that the 52% majority is still there. But the fact is that, no matter how much it is or not, with the vote for yesterday’s budgets, the rupture of the unity of this majority is verified.
Aragonès will have new budgets presumably from March 10, when the final vote is made. From then on, the punctual and concrete support of the PSC and the commons will be diluted; It will have the fierce opposition of Vox, Ciudadanos and the PP, and if things do not change much, it will not have the help of Junts and the CUP either. In between, municipal and general elections.
“We will have to meet again with both the CUP and Junts, because if not, we will not get ahead,” admitted Vilalta. A phrase designed for the national axis, but which is also applicable to the duration of the legislature.
