“Day to day, hospitals, housing… It is absolutely essential, the Government gets to work and I have convened an extraordinary Executive Council for tomorrow [for today] and take the first decisions for the development of these agreements “. Pere Aragonès considers that Catalonia “is already in a new stage” after the pacts reached with the PSOE and which have allowed the investiture of Sánchez. The primary one, the amnesty law, currently being processed in Congress. But so are, in his opinion, the transfer of Rodalies or the remission of 20% of the Catalan debt of the Regional Liquidity Fund (FLA). This withdrawal allows the Catalan Executive to stop paying 1,300 million in interest that the president wants to use for social policies.
Aragonès is hoping that during 2024 Catalonia will achieve a “singular financing”. He expressed it again yesterday morning in Parliament, in the control session, despite the fact that the PSC rejects it outright. The head of government’s idea is for Catalonia to collect all its taxes and manage them. Whether it is called an economic concert or a reduction in the fiscal deficit – which the Generalitat calculated for 2021 at 22,000 million euros -, the president considered it a “priority”. Also, immediately articulate the transfer of Rodalies, with a company of mixed ownership Generalitat-Moncloa, which involves “a clear improvement in the service”.
According to Aragonès, Catalonia is entering a new stage in which it must “face the country’s challenges”, without forgetting one of the greatest concerns today, if not the greatest: the drought. Salvador Illa, first secretary of the PSC, offered to help in this matter, but he was not spared criticism for a management that he deemed insufficient. “Now the table that most interests Catalans is that of the drought”, said the socialist.
All in all, the heated debate between ERC and Junts these last two days on the dialogue table between governments barely appeared in the control session. Only the CUP, through Carles Riera, made it clear that their training will not be in a space in which they claim that there will be no talk of self-determination. Aragonès preferred to devote his efforts in the rebuttals to trying to convince JxCat and the CUP that a new stage is beginning, prone to understanding between pro-independence supporters.
Thus, the president urged Junts and its leader in Parliament, Albert Batet, to “do great politics” and again invited the post-convergents to “come together to defend the interests of Catalonia everywhere”. Batet ignored the offer and limited himself to asking the head of the Government to explain the decision to suspend the Rodalies plenary session, which was to be held this week.
“The excuses are over. It is a fact that the service [from Rodalies] is deplorable, you cannot continue to turn your back on Parliament. He always says he closes great agreements, but he never comes to explain them”, criticized the post-convergent. In the afternoon, Junts registered in Parliament a request for Aragonès to appear.
The president reminded Junts that independence is “faced with a great historical opportunity” due to its capacity to influence Congress. “We need to do great politics, I will not enter into the politics of misery and reproaches and I extend my hand to him again”, he emphasized after recalling that Junts joined the PSC to postpone the monograph on Rodalies for a month.
