Puigdemont’s formation demands the elimination of inheritance tax and rejects the budgets agreed between the ERC and the PSC
A few hours before the end of the deadline, Junts has formalized in Parliament the amendment in its entirety to the budgets of the Generalitat for 2024. A decision that had already been made in recent weeks and that was confirmed after the meeting that they had last Thursday with the executive, who has always opposed applying fiscal policies such as the abolition of the inheritance tax. Thus, President Pere Aragonès is left without a way out for the debate on all accounts, which takes place this Wednesday in Parliament and which depends on the position of the commons, who block the Government’s project if it is not rectified with the Hard Rock. With only two days left until the vote, therefore, the unknown persists as to whether the budgets – agreed between the executive and the PSC – will prosper.
Together they offered to support the bills, but the Government refused to accept their proposals
In last week’s control session in the Catalan Chamber, where Aragonès defended going ahead with the planned tourism macro project in Camp de Tarragona because it is a demand of the Socialists, Junts showed himself ready to save the accounts, but he raised, once again, subsidize the inheritance tax at 99%. When the Government received the proposals of the formation founded by Carles Puigdemont and led by Laura Borràs and Jordi Turull, it was inflexible because they involved losing 1,212 euros in revenue. Since Junts voluntarily left the executive, in October 2022, there has been no major parliamentary agreement with ERC, and no budget project has been agreed upon.
The Hard Rock becomes the point of friction in the accounts and the vice-president Vilagrà is confident of finding the “deliverer”
The Hard Rock is not included in the budgets – unlike last year, when there was a reference in an annex signed between the Government and the PSC – but it has become the point of friction in the accounts. The vice-president Laura Vilagrà was optimistic this Monday in an interview with SER Catalunya, from where she pointed out that she will end up finding the “depressing” to have budgets. One of the factors that can influence the negotiations is that ERC contacts Yolanda Díaz, leader of Sumar – an area of which the commons are part – and second vice-president of the Spanish government, to pressure her to validate the accounts.
Catalan budgets also depend on what happens in the Congress of Deputies, where ERC and Junts are key for the PSOE
Because Catalan budgets not only have to do with what happens in Parliament, but also with the stage in the Congress of Deputies. The Republicans are key for Pedro Sánchez’s PSOE to be accountable, just as Junts is. In fact, it may happen that Puigdemont’s party overturns Aragonès’ project – as everything indicates – but end up endorsing Sánchez’s numbers. Preparatory negotiations are already underway, and the passage of the amnesty law in Congress will accelerate them. Until it is definitively validated – now it is a two-month process in the Senate, where the PP has an absolute majority and will take advantage of it to momentarily overthrow it -, the fate of Junts and the PSOE appear united.
