Esquerra has to fly alone. Yesterday's Junts sit-in forces him. The Republicans have as their first challenge the approval of some budgets of the Generalitat for 2023 that began to be prepared by the Minister of Economy, Jaume Giró, with the aim of mitigating the effects derived from the increase in inflation and the rise in energy prices. The Government, predictably alone from the ERC, needs the favorable vote of Junts or the PSC, or the abstention of both, but this afternoon Oriol Junqueras has completely closed the door to the Catalan socialists to approve the accounts.
“It is evident that the PSC is not committed to ending the repression, at least to the extent that it continues to endorse a good part of the repression that exists,” stressed the leader of the Republicans, despite the fact that in Congress the parliamentary group de Esquerra has already twice provided the general state budgets of a PSOE-United We Can coalition government, led by Pedro Sánchez.
In a press conference at the Esquerra headquarters one day after Junts left the Government, the president of Esquerra has made it very clear that the Government and its formation will sit down to negotiate only with those who are "committed to the end of the repression and with the full exercise of democracy”, that is, a self-determination referendum. "Many leaders of the PSC reddened their hands applauding our imprisonment," Junqueras assured before affirming that those of Salvador Illa "have many things to do in the field of the fight against repression" and to carry out a referendum. “Are you aware of how many people are still under threat of trials, imprisonment?, he remarked.
Junqueras has starred in a press conference in which he has been much more critical of the PSC than of Junts. The Republicans want to turn the page as soon as possible and this morning they have brought together his leadership in an extraordinary way to analyze the scenarios that open from today. The president of the Generalitat, Pere Aragonès, also attended this meeting, on whom the new names that will replace the seven ministers of Junts who had formed part of the Consell Executiu depend.
In any case, Junqueras has not avoided referring to the postconvergents. He has also done it within the framework of the Catalan budgets. “If one day there are possible parliamentary majorities, well because those who have drawn up the budgets [Junts and the Ministry of Economy] are willing to vote for them, then there will be budgets; and if there are no possible budgetary majorities because those who have prepared them now do not want to vote for them, (...) there is a scenario called extension ”, he has pointed out regarding the possibility of continuing the legislature with the same accounts of 2022.
Junqueras has also been convinced that the ERC can govern alone, but rather than parties like En Comú Podem or the CUP, he has appealed to social, cultural and civic agents. “If the country helps us, we can do extraordinary things”, highlighted the leader of the Republicans.
