The Government has moved when there are only a few hours left for the debate in Parliament on the processing of the 2024 budgets. It has moved on an issue, the Hard Rock, on which last week it assured that there was no margin. “And the common people know it”, said the spokeswoman for the Catalan Executive, Patrícia Plaja. Apart from the pact signed with the PSC, the Government only has the possibility of an agreement with those of Jéssica Albiach. That is why the Cabinet of Pere Aragonès has now opened the door to talk about the project, but in no case, say government sources, the proposal goes to stop the processing or the urban development plan (PDU) of the recreational complex.
Republicans don’t give a clue. They assure that the solution is not to apply a moratorium on the Hard Rock. The vice-president Laura Vilagrà dismissed it publicly yesterday morning on the Ser channel, but she did not deny that a move is being considered in relation to the project. “We will do what we can do”, he said on the matter.
Also Sergi Sabrià, deputy minister of the Government, avoided being forceful with the project proposed in Vila-seca and Salou: “We can find ways, but they are not the PDU”.
Whatever idea it has in mind, the Government must strike a balance so that the PSC, a staunch supporter of Hard Rock, does not abandon the agreement. In fact, Salvador Illa, first secretary of the Catalan Socialists, was finally convinced to vote in favor of the Generalitat’s budget after Aragonès assured a plenary of the Parliament that there is no possibility of stopping the project.
However, Esquerra also plays another card. This one, in Madrid. There have already been contacts with the leader of Sumar, Yolanda Díaz, to try to make the position of the commons more flexible. No success
Marta Vilalta, assistant general secretary and spokesperson for ERC, did not deny in a press conference that calls have been made to Díaz. “We always have conversations with everyone”, he expressed in a press conference every time he was asked about this possibility. The State’s general budgets could be in danger if the Catalans do not come forward.
But the common people have been warning for days that these pressure movements will be useless because Yolanda Díaz “shares” their position.
Therefore, for the time being, they hold the rate, they maintain the condition of “discarding the Hard Rock” and their determination to overturn the budgets on Wednesday, when the amendments presented in their entirety, the last one, that of Junts, will be debated in Parliament. The post-convergents warned that they will only withdraw it if the inheritance tax is eliminated.
Although the Government and Albiach’s formation held a new meeting yesterday, “everything remains the same”, say parliamentary sources. Although they do not deny that the Catalan Executive has explored some proposal regarding the Hard Rock, the cited sources describe their level of satisfaction as “between zero and nothing”. They see the Government “trapped with the PSC”, thus attributing much of the blame also to the Socialists, who yesterday described as an “excuse” the refusal of the commons to approve the budgets for this project.
The Commons will continue to sit at the table until time runs out and say they are not worried about the consequences if there is no final agreement, not even at the last minute, as has happened in the past. “Will ERC be able to stop approving these budgets for a project that even they defend? That’s the question that Aragonès has to answer”, said party spokesman Joan Mena yesterday.
