Jéssica Albiach receives La Vanguardia in the Parliament on the day the Amnesty law passes the filter of the Justice commission, but her mind is on the Catalan budgets, where she maintains her refusal if the Hard Rock is not ruled out. She rejects that it is for electoral interest, she blames PSC and ERC and warns the Republicans that her pressure in Madrid will have no effect.
Has your good relationship with President Aragonès soured?
We have a cordial, correct relationship, although we are seeing important differences these days as a result of the largest casino in Europe that the PSC wants to install in Camp de Tarragona. But it's true that I haven't spoken to him in more than 15 days.
ERC threatens to knock down the State budget if the Catalan ones are not approved
For us they have always been separate folders. ERC should not lose sight of the fact that the person blocking the Catalan budgets is Salvador Illa. I am surprised that a party like ERC thinks that Catalonia's budgets are decided in Madrid. They are decided in Catalonia.
It won't work...
Yolanda Díaz is aware of our position and shares that the decisions that affect Catalonia are made here.
Is the fault of the situation Illa or Aragonès?
On Wednesday in Parliament there was a turning point. After hiding behind successive excuses, the president was very clear saying that if he stopped the Hard Rock, Mr. Illa would distance himself from the budgets. This is the crux of the matter. We have a PSC that sets conditions for Hard Rock and a president who is incapable of leading and setting limits.
Can you imagine Junts supporting the budgets?
What is difficult for me is to imagine Mr. Aragonès lowering the inheritance tax to make the public coffers lose 1.2 billion. But if he decides to close an agreement with Junts, he is the one who will have to explain it.
Running out of budgets would be more expensive: 2.4 billion
It makes no sense that Aragonès started the legislature talking about green transformation and is now buying the PSC agenda. Hard Rock is not an anecdote. It symbolizes a debate between the old and the new, between a productive model based on the overexploitation of resources, on speculation that would bring more insecurity, mafias, money laundering, and that would consume eight million liters of water a day in the midst of the worst drought in the history of Catalonia. It is difficult for me to understand how the PSC blocks budgets for a macrocasino that goes against the values that Catalonia has always represented.
Apart from this, is there nothing about the pact with the PSC that bothers you?
It is an insufficient and unambitious agreement. We have a crisis of access to housing, families that cannot make ends meet, and we do not see brave policies in this regard either.
We are approaching an electoral period. Breaking away from the PSC and ERC is also going well…
Catalonia has had budgets in recent years thanks to En Comú Podem, even in an election year. We can be accused of many things but not of electoralism with budgets because they are a tool for common people. We sit with good will, but we do not give blank checks.
Do you think that Catalans prioritize the environment over economic growth?
Catalonia can progress. We need industry because we don't want to be just the resort of Europe, but the industry has to make a transition. We want a good economy, not one of casinos, sun and beaches because this climate emergency will make us weaker and more vulnerable.
Is it incompatible to have better road, airport and environmental connections?
Airport expansion is not our model. Our model is very similar to the one proposed by Pimec: one country, one capital, three airports and the railway connection between the three. We have to get out of barcinocentrism and continue bringing millions of tourists. Tourism is positive if it is sustainable and does not turn us into a theme park.
Don't you think it's difficult to win elections by saying no to everything? To the Hard Rock, to the airport, to the B-40…
Not all the projects that arrive are positive. Sovereignty means choosing which projects are positive for the people and the territory, and which ones so that four or five people end up making a living at the cost of carving up the territory and job insecurity that is already widespread.
How do you see the unique financing proposed by ERC?
Our proposal is a unique agreement between Catalonia and the State because we have powers that others do not have, but there must be solidarity and ordinality. Financing cannot be decided by a party with 33 deputies. We demand a party table where the Catalan forces can reach a consensus on what the model should be.
If the PSC wins the elections and needs you, would you be willing?
We have always been very clear about the pact policy. We are in Barcelona, in the State, in the municipalities and in Catalonia. Our allies are the progressive forces, and I believe that we are the only progressive force that would not form a government with Junts.
But you say that the PSC is more right-wing than the PSOE...
It's unheard of. It would be difficult for me to imagine Pedro Sánchez blocking budgets for a casino.
Don't you think Ada Colau is burning her leadership?
Ada's bet is coherent and people do not understand that municipal politics is not small politics, but rather it is proximity politics. Ada is fighting until the end so that Barcelona has a progressive government. What surprises me most is that ERC has decided to be a subordinate force to PSC, and we are seeing it in Barcelona and Catalonia.
How do you see Sumar and Yolanda Díaz? Are you losing momentum?
Yolanda is the best Minister of Labor we have ever had and a reference in Europe, and Sumar has made it possible for us to have a new progressive government. What happened in Galicia was predictable because there was no time for the project to take root.
Isn't she being very benevolent towards the PSOE on issues such as housing, the Gaza war...?
Yolanda Díaz has a clear voice, but acts with loyalty to the Government. Another thing is where the debate takes place, in public or in private. In the genocide of Israel and in the rents we have a braver position than Pedro Sánchez.
And in the Koldo case?
Here we ask for an investigative commission in Congress, for the truth to be known, for it to be reached
