The Government and the PSC have reached an agreement to approve the 2024 budgets, which provide for a 10% increase in the education budget, the construction of 10,000 social rental homes in the next two years, 25 new judicial units in Catalonia and an additional 144 million euros for primary care. In addition, 120 million euros will be allocated to help municipalities deal with the drought, one of the country’s main environmental challenges. The agreement will be formalized this afternoon at the Palau de la Generalitat, where President Pere Aragonès and the leader of the opposition, Salvador Illa, will sign the document containing the agreed measures. The Government expects to approve the accounts in an extraordinary council on Wednesday at 10:00 am.
An agreement with conditions
The agreement between the Government and the PSC is not complete, since the approval of a third partner is still missing: the commons. The party led by Jéssica Albiach has made it a condition to support the budgets that the Government renounce the Hard Rock project, the tourist and leisure complex that wants to be built in Camp de Tarragona. The commons consider that this project is contrary to the ecological and social principles they defend, and that it represents a mortgage for the future of the territory. The Government, however, has made it clear that there is no specific budget item for the Hard Rock, and that this depends on an environmental report that has not yet been made. In addition, the Government recalls that the PSC already gave its support to the Hard Rock in the 2023 budget agreement, and that it has the commitment of President Aragonès to comply with the previous agreements.
A long-term understanding
The agreement between the Government and the PSC is not the result of improvisation, but has its origin in the investiture of Pedro Sánchez as president of the Spanish government, which had the support of ERC. Then presidents Aragonès and Sánchez agreed on a way of dialogue and negotiation to resolve the political conflict between Catalonia and the State, which happened to approve the budgets in both Madrid and Barcelona. Thus, the PSC became a preferred partner of the Government, and facilitated the approval of the 2023 budgets, the first ones drawn up by the Minister of Economy Jaume Giró, from Junts. This party, however, left the Government in October 2022, after disagreeing with ERC on the management of the pandemic and the dialogue table. Since then, the Government has governed in a minority, with occasional support from the PSC and the commons.
The unknown of Barcelona
The agreement between the Government and the PSC also has repercussions in the Barcelona City Council, where ERC has agreed with the Socialists to approve the 2024 budgets of the Jaume Collboni government. This pact has opened the door to a possible ERC entry into the municipal government, which is currently made up of the PSC and Barcelona en Comú. The commons, however, do not see this option with good eyes, and accuse the Republicans of vetoing them. The negotiations to define the future of the City Council will continue in the coming weeks, with an eye on the municipal elections of 2025. What is clear is that budgets are a key element in understanding the relationships between the different political actors, both locally as well as nationally.