The Government is not guaranteed the votes to approve the accounts 48 hours after the debate
The Government of Pere Aragonès is in a delicate situation to push forward the budgets. Two days from the full debate, he does not have the necessary support to overcome the first hurdle. Junts has raised its bet and has registered this Monday morning an amendment in its entirety, increasing the uncertainty about the future of the accounts. ERC has only one option to save the budgets: the common ones. But these do not give in to their demand to paralyze the Hard Rock. They don’t even consider abstention as a way out.
The commons maintain the veto on the Hard Rock and ask ERC to rectify
The spokesperson for Catalonia en Comú, Joan Mena, reiterated this Monday in a press conference that his group will not support the budgets if the Government does not stop the Urban Master Plan (PDU) for the Hard Rock. “We want ERC to stop making a fool of itself and correct its mistake. The PDU is a purely political issue,” said Mena. He has assured that the commons will continue to negotiate until the end because they have a “will to agree”, but he has warned that they will not accept any other type of compensation other than the withdrawal of the PDU.
From the Government, however, it is argued that voting against the PDU could amount to a crime of prevarication, since the procedure is carried out in the Commission for Territory of the Generalitat, chaired by the ERC minister, Ester Capella. The commons, however, reject this thesis and remember that the PDU is a political decision that can be reversed. The leader of the commons in Parliament, Jéssica Albiach, already gave an ultimatum to the Government on Sunday, when she said she had three days to prevent Catalonia from becoming “Las Vegas of the Mediterranean”. Albiach made these statements at an event where Jaume Asens was officially proclaimed as a candidate for the European elections.
ERC looks for alternatives and pressures the commons with Madrid’s budgets
Faced with the lack of understanding with the commons, ERC is looking for other ways to save the budgets. One of them is to put pressure on the leader of Sumar, Yolanda Díaz, to influence the communes to give the green light to the accounts in Catalonia. In exchange, ERC could support Madrid’s budgets. The commons, however, criticize this strategy: “We do not understand that a party that defends Catalonia’s sovereignty wants the budgets to be decided in Madrid. Díaz is clear that the decision on Catalonia’s budgets will be made in Catalonia,” said Mena. The commons remember that it is not the first time that there is a budget exchange between different administrations, but that this will not condition them.