After a short and cordial meeting, lasting just 20 minutes, the Junts per Catalunya group described yesterday as “incomprehensible” the “delay” of the Executive of Pere Aragonès with the budgets of the Generalitat for 2024 The formation forwarded to the Catalan Government its proposal to negotiate the Catalan accounts at the second appointment to address this issue, although at the same time there are ongoing negotiations by the Republicans with the PSC and the communes which have more options to prosper.
These are more than 100 measures, collected in 16 pages, which the post-convergents see as “realistic” and “executable”. The most prominent are the proposals relating to taxation, the elimination of inheritance tax, a point that Esquerra flatly rejects. “We don’t share it”, assured the spokesperson of the party, Marta Vilalta. In addition, JxCat calls for the deflation of personal income tax in all sections by 5% and a reduction of the lowest section of this tax, from the 10% that the Catalan Government wants to set to 9.5%.
Measures relating to the drought – the main problem affecting Catalonia today – are also being demanded, with 50 million euros planned for aid to different sectors and investments of 250 million in water-related infrastructure, thinking about the future. And other issues of a more political than economic nature, such as the creation of an anti-occupation unit in the Mossos d’Esquadra body, a requirement that was already raised in 2022 during the negotiations.
The parliamentary spokesperson, Mònica Sales, and the deputies Joan Canadell and Jordi Munell went to the meeting on behalf of Junts. On behalf of the Government, the general secretary of the Presidency, Núria Cuenca; the new general secretary of Economy and Finance, Josep Maria Aguirre, and the general director of interdepartmental coordination, Marc Ramentol. In the first meeting between the Executive and JxCat, which took place on December 14, the current vice-president and advisor to the Presidency, Laura Vilagrà, and the head of Economy and Treasury, Natàlia Mas.
“We acknowledge our concern, we are already in February and the country still has budgets to respond to the needs of the people”, lamented Sales after the meeting. “We consider the Government’s delay with the budgets incomprehensible”, he added, before setting out his proposals.
The Government points out that it has been difficult to find a date for this second meeting with JxCat. In turn, Jordi Turull’s people hold the Executive responsible and say that the whole thing looks like déjà vu… Last year there were more than 15 meetings between the former members of the Government, but in the end the budgets to agree with the PSC and the commons, although the Executive indicated that the priority was the agreement with Junts. “This year we are no longer a priority”, points out a JxCat source.
