The president of the Generalitat has once again defended the budget agreement with the PSC, which has gone through giving in on the issue of the B-40 or fourth beltway but has insisted on ruling out Aena's proposal for the expansion of El Prat airport to despite having agreed with the Socialists to study how to increase the capacity of this infrastructure.
"I do not want to resign myself to the fact that the only possibility is the one proposed by Aena," said the president in an interview on TV3, in which he emphasized that what has been agreed with Salvador Illa's group is a work commission between the two governments (central and Catalan) to start working "without technical apriorities".
The Republican leader has indicated that the objective is to increase long-range connections, particularly in the Pacific area, both American and Asian, and that what must be studied is how this objective is achieved while respecting the neighbors and that "the impact on natural spaces and biodiversity is minimal, non-existent". "We will have to see all the technical possibilities", he concluded.
Regarding the other major agreements, he has referred to the Hard Rock project in the Tarragona countryside and has defended that "nothing changes" from what existed before the budget agreement. Thus, Aragonès has recalled that the project has already been modified by going from six casinos to one and that the occupation on the territory is less. "The procedure must continue its course", has indicated the president who has defended that the economic development of the Camp de Tarragona "should not be limited to a leisure complex next to Port Aventura". "The model goes through reindustrialization," he added.
As for the B-40, Aragonès once again acknowledged that there has been an agreement between different positions for the section between Terrassa and Sabadell. "It is not the model that I defend, but the budget had to be unblocked", he has sentenced after warning that not having accounts would have been "irresponsible".
In any case, the president has downplayed the assignments that have been made during the negotiation. "It is normal that in a negotiation everyone gives in", he pointed out to warn that a budget negotiation "is not done to see who is better off but to have more resources for the citizenry".
In this sense, he has once again pressured the former partners of Junts to join the agreement and agree to approve them, alleging that the Government has incorporated many of their proposals and has recalled that they also requested the large projects agreed with the PSC. "They should be there and it would be very good if they were there" insisted the president, who recalled that the first procedure "was done by them when they had the Department of Economy".
Regarding the criticism of Junts and the entire pro-independence environment that reproaches Esquerra for having abandoned the 52% pro-independence legislature, Aragonès has rejected it. "We have not abandoned the independence movement; confusing the budgets with a referendum I think is mixing things that do not touch", he snapped. "In the same way that Junts does not abandon the independence movement to agree with the PSC in the Barcelona Provincial Council or when Minister Giró went to see the PSC to try to agree on the budgets," he recalled. However, Aragonès has once again limited the scope of the agreement with the Socialists by indicating that it is limited only to the accounts. "It is not an agreement that goes further, nor does it propose country models", he has qualified.
Finally, the president of the Generalitat has asked for unity from the independence movement around his initiative to reach a clear agreement to agree on a referendum. "There will be a referendum in Catalonia when we have the necessary strength to have a referendum recognized by the international community."
