One of the engines of the procés in its first stage, aside from the Constitutional Court ruling that cut the Statute, was the economic malaise with the State due to the lack of investment. Issues such as the infrastructure deficit and the fiscal deficit –the fiscal balances have not been published since 2016–, very present in the embryonic phase, are now back on the agenda, especially after the data became known a few weeks ago. of budget execution for 2021.
Catalonia did not reach 36% compared to 184% of the Community of Madrid, and in the Parliament there will be two motions this week from the partners of the Government on this matter, although they do not go in the same direction. To solve the mess, several actors request a compensation mechanism from the central government.
After a few years with more emphasis on the vindication of civil and political rights, the freedom of independence prisoners and the return of expatriates, the economy is once again playing a leading role. It is not that the other folders have been left aside, but the economy is once again on everyone's lips.
Without going any further, at the Junts de Argelers congress, Carles Puigdemont focused part of his speech on this issue. "Damn, that's good!" He exclaimed at the lack of state investment, and called for non-independence supporters to be convinced with data such as budget execution.
The deputy Joan Canadell thinks that it is an issue that must be "put more on the table with arguments". “The economic issue has not been addressed much in recent years, since 1-O. ‘What does it cost us to continue in Spain?’ Is the question we have to ask, ”he points out. "We know that independence has some costs, but so does continuing in Spain," he adds. In training, they believe that this point can help convince people who are now far from their postulates and theses.
Canadell cites as examples for this work the commission on the historical debt that his group has promoted in the Catalan Chamber, which began its work last week with the first session. “We also want to prepare a budget without a fiscal deficit, so that citizens see reality. We do not receive what corresponds to us for our weight in population or for GDP. We have to explain to people what the Generalitat's accounts would look like with the taxes we pay”, he adds.
In fact, in the draft of the political paper of JxCat, which will be approved in the second phase of the congress in mid-July, it is committed to this Parliamentary commission "as a useful and essential instrument to understand to what extent fiscal spoliation damages the material interests of all Catalans and have more data to prepare an eventual separation of assets and liabilities”.
On behalf of the Esquerra Republicana, Ernest Maragall, who will defend the motion on Thursday, points out that "it is not a matter of the pro-independence agenda." “It is the agenda of the country and the government. Any government should be outraged. This year's figure is more spectacular, but it is a systematic thing in recent years”, he says. In addition, he recalls that this issue "is not very different from what was negotiated in 2006 with the Statute in the third additional provision." “The ball gets bigger and becomes disgraceful. But this is a country problem. All this affects productivity and all citizens”, adds the also councilor of the Barcelona City Council, where last week in the municipal plenary session two motions of JxCat and ERC were addressed on the same matter, although there were not so many differences between partners, highlights Maragall.
“The behavior of the State fills us with reasons to protest and vindicate. But we want to solve it and that it does not happen, it is the best service to the country. In addition to freedom and independence we need all that. We are not delighted with this, we have to solve it”, concludes the Republican leader, who a priori will repeat as a candidate in the Catalan capital next year.
The CUP believes that we have returned a little to 2007, to the December demonstration in which it was asked to decide on infrastructures – "We are a nation i diem prou! Tenim el dret to decide on les nostres infraestructures", was the motto. “There is a lack of investment and centralism. Is a reality. But if we claim independence, we cannot reproduce the same schemes of the State, and the Government should review its policies and not reproduce a centralist scheme. Independence has to serve to change things”, says Eulàlia Reguant.
“If the problem is that investments such as those for the airport or the fourth belt are not made, there is no problem. If we talk about Rodalies, there is a problem”, considers the deputy, who believes that “ERC has to explain why it is a partner of the Government if it cannot guarantee compliance with the budgets”.
The leader of the anti-capitalists recommends paying more attention to the model, and for there to be public transport and infrastructure beyond the Barcelona metropolitan area. "A differentiated and transformative proposal is necessary, it is not enough to denounce grievances," she emphasizes.
In Congress, PDECat deputy Ferran Bel demanded a compensation mechanism a few weeks ago to prevent unexecuted investments from recalculating the following year if the items are re-included in the budgets, and warned the Government, with its “ crude excuses” about the lack of investment and the “excuses of poor payer”, “they make the situation even worse”, “they increase the anger in Catalonia” and further outrage the Catalan population.
In addition, ERC and PDECat, more or less stable partners of the central government, have already warned that with these wickers it is difficult to support next year's budgets. And Junts, with its motion for next Thursday, presses in that direction. At one point it is stated that if the part not executed is not settled in 2021, no pro-independence group will support Pedro Sánchez's accounts, which have already begun to be prepared and will be processed in October. A point that will probably divide the partners in the Catalan Chamber. “They will not mark our vote for us, they pointed out from ERC.
