Illa ignores ERC's no and reiterates her offer to agree on the budgets

The ERC can now veto the Socialists for future Generalitat agreements, as Oriol Junqueras insisted yesterday, that Salvador Illa is there, persistent in his outstretched hand policy since the beginning of the legislature.

Thomas Osborne
Thomas Osborne
08 October 2022 Saturday 19:30
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Illa ignores ERC's no and reiterates her offer to agree on the budgets

The ERC can now veto the Socialists for future Generalitat agreements, as Oriol Junqueras insisted yesterday, that Salvador Illa is there, persistent in his outstretched hand policy since the beginning of the legislature. Pere Aragonès is going to have to tie himself to a mast because if something is turning out, the leader of the PSC is foreseeable in this matter, and yesterday he once again offered his support to the president to negotiate "country" budgets. “I am there, I am not lurching, it is a moment of responsibility, of common sense and of thinking about the good of the country”, he reiterated, during his visit to the Barcelona municipality of Bagà.

With 33 deputies in the Parliament, the Catalan socialists saw on Friday how a window of opportunity was opened for them to be decisive, after Junts confirmed his break with ERC and Laura Borràs dispatched himself with bitter criticism towards Aragonès, whose government came to cross out of illegitimate. "Strong and stable governments are needed and useful, respectful, constructive and credible politics that comply with the agreements reached," Illa stressed.

Also En Comú Podem, which has negotiated and supported the last two budgets of the Generalitat with ERC and Junts, sees how the game opens up for them. Its leader, Jéssica Albiach, spoke yesterday after the meeting of the party's executive and offered Aragonès an "outstretched hand" for the construction of a progressive majority, although she has already warned that his formation will not give her "a blank check ”.

Albiach also referred to the possibility that the commons enter the new government and assured that they had not received any call from the president, although he pointed out that the question is not whether they enter the new government, but "if Aragonès wishes to articulate a majority of progress or not.

The 2023 budgets will be the first litmus test for the new monocolor government of Aragonès. ERC needs a majority in Parliament to move them forward, that is, more votes in favor than against, which makes the support of Junts (32 deputies) or the PSC (33) essential - and of another group, which could be the common – or the abstention of both. Junqueras stressed yesterday that the Catalan socialists are ruled out and that if Junts does not lend its support from outside, the alternative is to extend those of 2022.

Almost at the same time that the ERC leader made these statements, at the party headquarters, the PSC leader spoke from Berguedà, making it clear that he does not accept the ERC no. “In August I reached out for Catalonia to have a country budget, I reiterated it last week in the general policy debate, this offer was rejected both times, I stand by it”, he underlined. “As the main party in the Parliament, and this is not minor, I have more electoral support at this time than the Government, I reiterate my offer to sit down and talk” and asked “to think more about the problems of the Catalans and less about the own interests of each formation, which is what has brought us to where we are,” he said, referring to the breakup of the pro-independence coalition.