The PSC has decided to withdraw from the agenda of the plenary session of the Parliament this Thursday a motion on foreign action that demanded that the Government not open new Catalan delegations abroad this year, and only accepted to "consolidate" those already created but that fully operational. The decision is interpreted as a non-aggression pact between both parties in this matter, in which ERC maintains differences with the PSC and an intense struggle with Junts per Catalunya, which accuses the Government of paralyzing the Generalitat's external action after its departure of the Executive.
The motion, withdrawn this Wednesday by the Socialists, demanded that the Government "seek the greatest possible political consensus in the fundamental strategic lines of the foreign action of the Generalitat" and "consolidate the delegations abroad of the Government established by decree in 2022" but "Do not open new ones during the year 2023". However, ERC presented amendments to the articles of the motion eliminating the explicit mention of the Socialists on the non-opening of new delegations this year.
Junts also presented an amendment to the motion in which it went further than the Republicans, demanding "to continue the process of deploying Catalan foreign action in 2023", and placing special emphasis on the new delegations from Israel, China, Colombia, India , and the offices of Slovenia, Canada, Quebec and Ireland.
The differences on foreign action between the three political forces is evident. Consequently, the PSC would hardly have been able to carry out its motion in plenary session of Parliament, since it did not assume the nuances of ERC, much less the ambition of Junts. Hence, finally the socialists have decided to withdraw it.
The Catalan delegations abroad has been one of the issues that has generated controversy between the Government and the PSC during the budget negotiations. Among their demands, the Socialists claimed to stop the opening of new 'embassies', as stated in the text finally withdrawn, and the possibility of "evaluating those that are in operation", with the aim of closing those that are considered not to be provide a profitable or advantageous service.
The Executive of Pere Aragonès has always shown reluctance to this proposal and has declared himself in favor of putting into operation the seven delegations created but that are not operational. But in addition, the minister of Acció Exterior Meritxell Serret has pointed out on several occasions that "it is not ruled out" to open another.
The Socialists consider that the intention expressed by Serret responds, basically, to the need to deactivate the criticism that he has been receiving from Junts. The former minister of the sector, Victòria Alsina (Junts) denounced, after learning about the budget agreed with the PSC, the "paralysis" and "lack of ambition" of the Government. Alsina regretted that the Ministry only has a budget of 100 million euros in 2023, compared to 90 the previous year, a figure that she rectified, ensuring that in reality, Exteriors had a 94.2 million euro budget in 2022.
In any case, the resources that the Serret department has are the lowest compared to the rest of the ministries in this year, even below that of Igualtat i Feminismes, which reaches 115 million (in 2022 it was 91 million). .
