The president of the Generalitat, Pere Aragonès, has been convinced that the Government is not going to break up despite JuntsxCat's threats to leave it and has set the first results of the dejudicialization agreed with the government before the end of the year. the central government at the dialogue table between the two executives.
In a long interview on TV3, the president, who has confirmed that he will not attend the Diada demonstration with the argument that it would not make sense for his presence to serve to go against the government he presides over, has warned that the citizens "ask us that everyone continues to assume their responsibilities at a time when, beyond nuances or strategic divergences on how we achieved independence, in many other areas we must continue working and at the foot of the canyon".
For this reason, he added that "he would not understand" that at "the current moment" someone, referring to the members of the Government, "would not assume their responsibilities" in the sense of "continuing to focus on governing and focused on resolving structural issues" that affect to Catalonia in the face of the difficulties caused by the war in Ukraine, which "has been affecting the pockets of the citizens of Catalonia for months now".
And he has been convinced that this would not happen and that the ministers proposed by JxCat in the current government "will continue to work at the service of citizens, they have done so far, I have no complaints." In this sense, Aragonès has assured that he has full confidence in the members of Junts in the Government. "The institutions must be preserved", the president has settled before the possibility that the constant disagreements between the two partners of the Catalan Executive (the lack of a unitary independence strategy, the dialogue table or the Borràs case) will lead to the fall of the Government.
Regarding one of the issues that affect these relations, the dialogue table -in which Junts is not represented-, Aragonès has said that "before the end of the year", that is to say in the next three months, there will be concrete results on the dejudicialization agreed in July with the Executive of Pedro Sánchez. "We know that when there are elections the Spanish government has a harder time negotiating," the Catalan president acknowledged, aware of the proximity of the new electoral cycle that will begin in May with the municipal elections and will end at the end of 2023 in general elections.
Specifically, the president wants legislative reforms to be made so that "no one else should go to jail and lay the foundations so that exiled people can return if this is what they want." Aragonès has wanted to make it clear that they do not negotiate on behalf of anyone, alluding to Carles Puigdemont, although he has recalled that there is not only one exile.
In any case, the head of the Catalan Executive has recognized that they cannot trust a "so conservative" Spanish justice but "we can make legislative reforms" in reference to the elimination of the crime of sedition. "We must work so that the results resemble those of an amnesty as much as possible," he summarized.
Regarding the other folder that the Government maintains at the dialogue table, the agreed referendum, Aragonès has admitted that it will not happen in the short term. "It would be misleading the public" to say that we will be able to do it soon, acknowledged the president, who maintains that a negotiation process "requires time and it is necessary to strengthen the independence movement." In this sense, he has considered that it is necessary to create "much broader consensus in Catalonia" and has stressed that the majority of Catalan citizens, independentists and non-independentists, want an agreement to resolve the political conflict.
Therefore, Aragonès has explained that in the next general policy debate, at the end of the month, he will make a proposal for self-determination and has ensured that support for an agreed referendum is majority, even among the PSC electorate. In line with this he has invited the socialists to jump on the bandwagon. "The attitude must always be to welcome everyone. If someone changes their mind and joins the cause of the referendum, we will not blame them for what they said before", he has emphasized.
Regarding the controversy of the last week, his non-attendance at the Diada demonstration organized by the Catalan National Assembly, Aragonès has confirmed his absence, pointing out that "it would not make sense for my presence to serve to go against the government that I preside over" although he has encouraged citizens to mobilize freely.
However, after assuring that he would never ask any entity to change the meaning of their actions, he has recommended the ANC to make positive contributions. "I think it would be positive if they did not reproach fellow travelers but against the institutions of the Spanish State that deny the right to self-determination and amnesty."
With everything, he has made it clear that all the members of the Government are free to go or not go and has framed in normality that those of ERC do not go and those of Junts, yes. "The Government has different visions because it is made up of different parties," she stressed.
Regarding the 2023 budgets, the president has assured that the priority allies to approve them are the CUP and the Comunes and has avoided not ruling out the PSC, as his Minister of Economy, Jaume Giró, has done. "We will prioritize an agreement with which we can coincide more", he has pointed out in allusion to the two preferred allies, while regarding the socialists he has indicated that "they represent different models of country".
Going into the content of the accounts, the Catalan president has advanced that improving the conditions of health personnel will be one of the axes of the same to give them stability and prevent them from going to work outside and has ruled out tax changes in general and in particular the abolition of the inheritance tax that, as he has assured, is only paid when the amounts are relevant.
