The president of ERC, Oriol Junqueras, has assured that it would not seem fair to him that the exiles who return to Catalonia would have to face four years in prison, as would include the latest proposal on the embezzlement in which the PSOE and Unidas Podemos are working, that La Vanguardia is advancing today.
The Republican stated that the objective of ERC is to "reduce it and make it disappear", but added that to go as far as possible, everyone's help is needed. "Will we manage to make it disappear? It depends on how many people help us", he has stated in statements to Catalunya Ràdio.
In a similar vein, he asked for "some generosity" from the Catalan parties to leave behind "private" interests and allow budgets to be approved.
PSOE and Podemos will present a proposal this Monday that proposes adding a new type of embezzlement that penalizes irregular budgetary deviation within the public administration. Those who commit this crime may be punished with a maximum of four years in prison and six years of disqualification.
This would lower the maximum applicable sentence, which now establishes up to six years in prison and ten years of disqualification. The ERC proposal establishes a penalty of a maximum of three years in prison and the differentiation between cases in which there is no personal gain.
Junqueras assured that his proposal seeks to "put justice where there is injustice" and did not answer whether this proposal would allow the return of Carles Puigdemont or Marta Rovira. Similarly, he has said that it is "irrelevant" how this reform can benefit him and what the political effects would be in his case.
Thus, he has guaranteed that ERC will do everything it can with the strength at its disposal and has called on all the formations that share his position to help them go further in the negotiation. And it is that he considered "inexplicable" that formations that can help to achieve it did not end up doing it. "It would be nice if, from time to time, someone would help," he declared.
He defended that what is imputed to those involved in 1-O "is not embezzlement" and pointed out that it is the result of a reform of the PP "that had names and surnames."
On the other hand, Junqueras has defended that the budgets that the Government has raised are supported by businessmen, unions, workers and the third sector. For this reason, he has said that those who are putting "sticks in the wheels" are not doing it against the executive, but against all those people. "Who are they for?" he wondered.
In this sense, he has also questioned based on what arguments are opposed when there is "unprecedented" support. For this reason, he has asked them "to stop acting with very particular and very private interests" and in the short term, and get to work at the service of society. "What do you want to wait for?", he has insisted she.
