The deputy secretary general and spokesperson for ERC, Marta Vilalta, sees it as "possible" that the Government approve the Generalitat's budgets for 2023 next week and has opted to move them forward with a three-way agreement with the PSC, the comuns and Together.
"Hopefully it could be next week. We believe it is possible, given how the negotiations are going. We would like there to be this responsibility on the part of everyone with whom we are negotiating so that in the next few days it can be approved by the Government and taken to the Parliament", he said in an interview with Europa Press.
As he stated, at the moment "there is no evidence that any group can get out of these negotiations", which he assures that they have intensified and are carried out responsibly, with documentation exchanges and negotiations on the proposals that the groups have put forward. on the table.
"The parliamentary groups will have the ability to decide on their political position, but for the moment we are optimistic. We trust that this agreement can be as broad as possible and we also appeal to everyone's responsibility to do it as soon as possible, because we do not we can waste time", he added.
On whether they are advancing at the same level with the three parties, he pointed out that with the communes they have gone deeper and are "closer to the agreement", after closing agreements on mobility and renewables, while with PSC and Junts there have been several meetings and work continues, he stressed.
Asked about the Junts proposal to lower and deflate personal income tax, she warned that "surely" it is one of the requests on which it will be more difficult to reach an agreement: as she has argued, these tax reductions would mean that the Generalitat would give up income for a value of 750 million euros, while the impact on the pocket of citizens would be minimal, in his words.
"In this sense, surely it would not be the best of the proposals, and even so, they are also valued and negotiated and you can see what the margin may be," said Vilalta, who does see it as easier to close agreements on the Junts proposals in terms of health, industrial policy and shock plan in the face of the crisis.
Regarding the meetings with the PSC, the Republican spokesperson has maintained that they have made progress since the start of the negotiations, also through sectoral meetings, which makes them "optimistic" about the possibility of reaching an agreement in the coming days.
Vilalta has called on the Socialists to focus on the budget issues included in the accounts and the accompanying law, and "work in another way and at another time" requests such as the promotion of the Hard Rock leisure macro complex in Tarragona or the expansion from Barcelona Airport.
After the first secretary of the PSC, Salvador Illa, assured that he has reasons to distrust ERC, Vilalta has replied that ERC also has reasons to distrust the PSOE, but has asked to focus on "building trust" and working to reach agreements.
"If we only remain in the criticism, in the reproach and in the immobility, which is what many times, too many, we find in the political sphere, it is useless. It does not serve to advance. It is about trying to be useful", has defended.
Vilalta has regretted that the CUP has "excluded itself" from the negotiation of the accounts, for which the Government initially placed it as a preferred partner together with Junts y comuns, when announcing an amendment to the entire Generalitat Budget.
Despite this -he has maintained- ERC will continue working to deploy investiture agreements with the 'cupaires' such as the universal guaranteed income plan, public energy and the review of the police model after closing the study commission: "Surely if we work hand in hand we will be able to make the transformations faster or more possible than if they get out of some of the agreements".
Vilalta has refused to specify whether, if the Budgets are approved, the Government will close the door to calling early elections during 2023, something that - he has stressed - is the "responsibility" of the president of the Generalitat, Pere Aragonès.
"This will be seen. Right now the best scenario for the country, for the people, for the companies, for the organizations, for the citizens is to be able to have some Budgets" which, as he has highlighted, will endow more than 3,000 million euros extra to the Generalitat and will include measures agreed with employers, unions, social entities and the cultural sector.
He has maintained that the ERC Government, with 33 deputies in Parliament, will continue to seek the support of the rest of the forces to carry out their measures, as he defends that they have done since the inauguration of Aragonès: "We refer to the facts and the reality of the parliamentary day to day. From the beginning of the legislature until now, the vocation and the constant has been on the part of ERC is to seek and build agreements ".
On whether they count the socialists among these supports, after the ERC leader, Oriol Junqueras, stated that the PSC is not committed "to the end of repression", Vilalta has stressed that the models defended by both parties are antagonistic, in his words, but that collective interests must come first.
"To the extent that the PSC is in tune with those country consensus, we will perhaps find ourselves in a scenario where there are more possibilities for an agreement. If not, obviously it will be very difficult, because we represent absolutely conflicting models of the country and of how we imagine the future," he added.
Vilalta recalled that one of the commitments of the Generalitat and the Government in the framework of the last dialogue table, held in July, was to advance "on the path of dejudicialization and the anti-repressive agenda" during the last semester of the year, in what stressed that some steps have already been taken.
All this, after the Government has opened up to accept reductions in the penalties for embezzlement in the framework of the modification to repeal the crime of sedition from the Penal Code as long as it does not benefit the corrupt, which ERC will defend via amendment, and the reform to introduce aggravated public disorder in the Penal Code.
The Republican spokeswoman recalled that another of the commitments of both Executives was to hold another table in December, so she believes that "it would be good if there could be a new session in the coming days or weeks" to ratify agreements, make progress and address new issues within the framework of the resolution of the political conflict.
Given the visit to Barcelona this Sunday by the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, to participate in a PSC act, he has warned that there are "many steps to be taken" in resolving the conflict, and has maintained that the measures already agreed respond to demands of organizations such as Amnesty International, the United Nations or the Assembly of Parliamentarians of the Council of Europe.
"The conflict has not ended. Perhaps it is what they would like, for the political conflict to have already been resolved. Sometimes they say that it seems as if it had already been resolved... Let it be clear to them: the political conflict has not been resolved" , Vilalta has warned, and has assured that this will only happen when self-determination can be exercised.
