The Government of Pere Aragonès has gone from totally ignoring the offers of the PSC to discuss the numbers of the 2023 budget, to openly reaching out to Salvador Illa today in Parliament to negotiate them. The president of the Generalitat has not even resorted to the much-vaunted formula of stressing that the priority is to settle accounts with the groups that facilitated his investiture (Junts and the CUP) and with those who favored the current budgets (Junts and the commons). . But now the roles have been exchanged and it is the Socialists who have shown their discontent over some conversations with the first secretary of the Catalan Socialists himself, who has refused to describe them as negotiations.
Today the Government has scheduled meetings of a technical nature with the PSC, Junts and the commons. The Ministers of the Presidency and Economy, Laura Vilgrà and Natàlia Mas, are not present at them. Yes your teams. But the Socialists believe that the talks are without substance.
"Take note for the purposes that you deem appropriate with what I tell you: the documentation that we have requested has not been delivered to us," Illa stressed after recalling that her party has learned details of the accompaniment law - so called because it accompanies the budget law and where tax modifications are often incorporated - by the press. "Look, I try to carry out serious and useful politics", the socialist leader has remarked, but he has warned Aragonès that his willingness to negotiate the numbers does not respond to the will to support the Government, but to help "Catalonia advance". At this point, Illa has criticized the lack of seriousness that, in his opinion, the president demonstrates by not providing documentation to the PSC: "Serious policy is to work with discretion, information and with a minimum climate of trust." “You will know with whom and what account; with us in this way, no ”, he criticized.
Aragonès has replied. Moderately, since the Catalan budgets may end up depending on the PSC if Junts continues bitter in its reluctance to agree with the Government. The president has affirmed that some of the documentation requirements requested by Illa are configured at the end of the preparation of the budgets, so it is not possible to have them at this time. However, he has summoned Illa to present proposals to study them and incorporate them if there is an agreement.
Be that as it may, the head of the Government has stated that in the coming weeks he will present the draft budgets for 2023 so that they can be processed in Parliament with the greatest possible support.
The PSC has constantly complained about the evolution of the budget negotiation. On August 22, Illa openly offered to treat them. "The offer was not very well received," she lamented. Despite the fact that there will be no new accounts on January 1, in any case the Socialists have not thrown in the towel and insist on agreeing on them and moving them forward. But a climate of trust is essential. The Socialists claim it and consider that knowing the data of the accompaniment law through the press does not contribute to it. Aragonès, however, wanted to clarify that by law the accompaniment standard must be delivered to the CTESC (Consell de Trabalho Econòmic i Social de Catalunya) for its evaluation and that the PSC has some axes of the measures contained in the documentation.
The relationship with the commons, with its potholes, does not seem so complicated. Jéssica Albiach, leader of En Comú Podem in the Catalan Chamber, has not recriminated today, as the Socialists have done, any lack of information. Albiach has urged Aragonès to improve primary health care, which is "not only the gateway", but also the "heart of the health system". The commons propose allocating 25% of the Health budget to primary care - today it is close to 18% - and the hiring of more professionals.
Aragonès recalled that there is a decree of 376 million euros that the PSC and Junts avoided in the meeting of spokespersons to be taken to the plenary session to be validated. The president recalled that the amount allocated to primary care in recent years has gone from 13% to 17.9% and has promised to reach 25%, as stated in the investiture pact with the CUP.
Citizens and the PP have also referred to the budgets. Carlos Carrizosa, the president of the orange formation in Parliament, has accused Aragonès of delaying the presentation of the budgets because "the fear of losing paralyzes him." The president of the PP in Catalonia, Alejandro Fernández, has demanded that wealth and inheritance taxes be abolished and that personal income tax be deflated, as the former Minister of Economy Jaume Giró had suggested.
