Both the Government and the PSC have given unequivocal signals today that the agreement for the Generalitat’s 2024 budgets is very close. “The next few days could be a possibility (…), the agreements with some groups are not advanced, but very advanced,” said the spokesperson for the Catalan Executive, Patrícia Plaja, on Tuesday; “It would be very difficult for me not to support them,” stressed the first secretary of the Catalan socialists, Salvador Illa.
The pact is, today, close. Esquerra and the PSC have 66 deputies in the Parliament. “Considerable progress is being made and there are permanent contacts,” said the spokesperson when asked about the PSC. There would be two seats left for the absolute majority, which the Government clearly hopes that the common people will help achieve it. This is what Plaja hinted at when at the press conference after the Consell Executiu this morning she expressed hope that last year’s budget [approval] operation could be “repeated”, alluding to the PSC and the commons.
Illa has also been eloquent during an interview on RTVE. She has confirmed that the PSC’s contacts with the Government have intensified in recent weeks and that there will be more this week. “And I can tell you more, have I had a conversation with President Aragonès? Yes, and quite fluid,” he stated.
With these premises, it is possible that Junts and the CUP will be left out, despite the fact that Plaja has stressed that “the negotiations are alive with all the groups.” In fact, the Government met with Junts last week, although it was only the second of the meetings, while with the Socialists, Aragonès’ team has even held several meetings per week for some time. And the commons, who were the first to sign the pact for the 2023 accounts, on the one hand are this time waiting for the PSC to agree to it, and on the other hand remain reticent about the possibility of the Hard Rock recreational complex , in Vila-seca, get ahead.
Plaja has tried to downplay this second factor. “The issue of the Hard Rock depends on a complex urban planning procedure on which the Generalitat has to rule, but with the condition that private actors are involved,” she noted. In any case, Plaja has made it clear that Pere Aragonès’ Executive does not consider that “it will be an obstacle” to moving forward with the 2024 accounts.
JxCat has maintained a positioning similar to that of the negotiation for the 2023 budgets. Even its main demands today are quite similar to those of then. The Government points out that the post-convergents have not shown a “real attitude” to approve the accounts. Junts has complained about something similar. On Monday, without going any further, Josep Rius, vice president and spokesperson for the party, urged the Catalan Cabinet and the PSC to “stop doing theater” and “staging discrepancies.”
The Government and the PSC have also agreed on another point: that the agreement reached yesterday at Barcelona City Council between Jaume Collboni, ERC and the commons so that the city’s budgets are processed has no connection with the probable agreement for those of the Generalitat. Nor with the general accounts, which Pedro Sánchez could present in the coming weeks, despite the fact that the Republican spokesperson recognized at the beginning of January that they were linked.
