The imminent challenge is to approve the budgets. Discarded the question of trust by the president himself, they could be considered the revalidation of the Govern Aragonès. Without new accounts, the Catalan Executive could be questioned after Junts left the Palau de la Generalitat. It only has the guaranteed vote of 33 Esquerra deputies out of a total of 135 seats, 21% of parliamentary representation. But Pere Aragonès has rejected that the approval of the budgets is a validation of the Government of him or an alternative to the question of trust.
“We have majorities in Parliament that can be formed. I am convinced that to help in housing policies we will find the majority; in assisting in further education, we will find the majority; in continuing to finance kindergartens so that they continue to be free as well”, he expressed during an interview on TV3 before a scenario, that of the extension of the current accounts, which he has remarked that it is not what he would like. “At every measure we will find the majority”, he added before concluding that “everyone will have to do their part”.
With everything, the negotiation for the budgets of the Generalitat is on the way to playing three bands. It has already happened with those of 2021 and with those in force, with the barter between ERC, the commons and the PSC and the PSOE to approve the Catalan accounts, those of the Barcelona City Council and those of the State. This year a variable is added: the Pere Aragonès-Pedro Sánchez exchange could include the reform of the crime of sedition that the Republicans demand so much.
In the interview, Aragonès has assured that the Government "has to understand that it is necessary to advance" in this reform. He has complained that there is still no proposal presented in Congress in this regard and has urged Sánchez to work diligently on it.
The 2023 State budgets are more advanced than the Catalan ones and the President of the Government expects them to come into force on January 1. On the contrary, Aragonès almost completely ruled out on Tuesday the approval of his own numbers before that date, which is why this negotiation factor gains strength with the modification of the crime of sedition involved.
In Esquerra there have been script twists in his speeches. For example, on Saturday Oriol Junqueras completely rejected the complicity of the PSC. This Thursday the first secretary of the PSC, Salvador Illa, has demanded that the Government "clarify itself", while making it clear that he is committed to starting talks to agree on the budgets.
Be that as it may, if things don't change much, the Govern de Esquerra is going to have to come to terms with the PSC for one reason or another. Pere Aragonès appeals again and again to Junts to vote in favor of some budgets of the Generalitat that until Friday had been prepared by one of its ministers, Jaume Giró.
But at the moment the postconvergents are not swallowing and have already warned several times that before approaching any negotiation, the president should submit to a matter of confidence. Hence, on Tuesday the head of the Government avoided ruling out the Catalan socialists at all times.
The doors of the budget negotiation are opened by the Government to the commons and the CUP. He keeps the PSC in reserve. The commons seem predisposed and this Thursday the CUP, which before leaving Junts almost completely refused to negotiate the budgets, has stood up and has stated that they will continue to insist on everything that serves to advance at the national and social level, for which they will put their proposals “on all the tables”. And when the spokesperson for the anti-capitalist national secretariat, Maria Sirvent, was asked if they would present proposals, her response was clear: "We are always receptive."
