A restaurant closed to the public at the foot of the Montserrat mountain served on Wednesday as a refuge for a collective catharsis for the dismissed ministers of Junts and seventy other post-convergent positions who have been left without work and without institutional speakers. The meeting was intended to be smaller but the senior officials were joined by former ministers from other governments, officials from the territorial services of the ministers, mayors, presidents of county councils, councillors… Jaume Giró, Victoria Alsina, Violant Cervera, Lourdes Ciuró, Ramon Tremosa, Miquel Buch, Meritxell Budó…
The appointment was discreet, long and with full capacity. It was proposed as “a meeting of friends” that, “without criticism” of Jordi Turull or Laura Borràs, aims to value that 42% of militants who preferred to keep their feet in the Generalitat, which claims to “do politics, not anti-politics” , and that does not share the definition of “fraudulent” of the Govern de Pere Aragonès. The national council on the 22nd will mark the new playing field and that sector, “without threatening splits as Jaume Alonso-Cuevillas did”, wants to rethink the tone of Junts in the opposition. “Responsible opposition or delegitimization of institutions?” is the question.
Upon his departure from the Government, Junts had no contingency plan to attend to the hundreds of workers who are being laid off every day and will stop entering some 30,000 euros a month that they transferred from their payroll. It has also ceded the media focus to PSC and the commons, who have already been awarded the role of potential budget partners of Aragonès. The president will not submit to a question of confidence and the PSC will not play with a motion of censure, so the immediate continuity of the ERC Government is not in danger. The leadership of Junts continues to “underestimate” the resilience of Aragones, they lament in the pragmatic sector, and warn that the “trumpist” drift can lead the party to the UVI after the municipal ones and abort reformist operations.
Jordi Turull is faced with a dilemma regarding the future of the party and that is where Dr. Aragonès wants Mr. Junts. “In their messes” for their opposing identities. The priority in ERC is to confront the postconvergents with a project of budgets that are “90% of Giró”. Let it be Junts who resigns. If the numbers do not come out, the PSC is waiting to triangulate support in the Parlament, the Congress and even the Barcelona City Council. “And Junts will pass into irrelevance”…
The president has already taken the first step in his budget strategy. He contacted Turull on Thursday, with whom he has been summoned to talk about the budgets. He has met with the leader of the commons, Jéssica Albiach, and will do so with Salvador Illa. They had already spoken on Sunday. He communicated the names of the new ministers to everyone before making himself public. Although the leader of the PSC did not see the call and the information remained in a courtesy message. Beyond the accounts, he does not worry about the meager parliamentary majority. Legislative production is less. So far this legislature, six legal amendments, and two emergency laws, the risk fund of the Generalitat and language learning to protect Catalan. “There is room, even with a budget extension.”
ERC has stood up to Junts and Aragonès “liked” his new authority, the Republicans celebrate, but the game continues with Moncloa and the PSOE. A simple budget “change of cards” is not optimal for ERC before the municipal race. They counted on some gesture from the Government in September in the field of dejudicialization that has not arrived and the countdown to refreeze the dialogue table in the electoral campaign has begun.
The budget execution of investments in Catalonia continues at 16% and, after agreeing on the last two budgets, Gabriel Rufián has no other weapon than to question Pedro Sánchez’s “word” and wait. The calendar does not favor ERC. If in Palau they were able to illuminate half of the Government in a weekend at night -some candidate passed through Palau at ungodly hours-, now the “long gaze” of Oriol Junqueras prevails and the need to calculate each movement with the PSOE -and the PSC- anticipating all side effects.
