President Pere Aragonès and the leader of the PSC, Salvador Illa, met six times during the budget negotiation before closing the agreement, as many others were called and their respective teams held 25 meetings. The profusion of meetings reflects the complexity of the company: crossing the ERC sanitary cordon to the Socialists, overcoming, if possible, the mutual distrust fueled since tripartite times and assuming some political cost in an election year. The pact has infrastructure as its essence, thus shifting the axis of the Catalan political debate, displaced in recent years towards the national question.
Aragonès and Illa meet at the Casa dels Canonges in the Palau de la Generalitat at the initiative of the president. Junts had already decided to leave the Government and Oriol Junqueras had expressed a refusal to a budget agreement with the PSC, which two days later he qualified with a "for now". Then it would be Aragonès himself, at a press conference, who for the first time half-opened the door to the pact with the Socialists. In the "exploratory" meeting, both confirm their willingness to agree, but the mistrust is palpable. The "Madrid thing" is still at stake: the approval of the State budget and the reform of the Criminal Code, which the central government has already shown its willingness to address.
In this appointment, Illa warns the president that "we will all have to look good in the photo," recalls a source from the PSC. Also that he will not feel concerned by any other agreement that the Government may reach, a prevention before the subsequent pact with the commons, with whom the Executive is advancing in talks.
Negotiations with the PSC begin on November 7 and the meetings are repeated without much assiduity or progress. The Socialists denounce the "Caribbean" rhythm of the talks and the lack of information, and verify that their demands on infrastructure are a problem that they put aside for later. The Government, for its part, admits that "the main lines of the accounts have been exposed" and continues to insist that its priority is that the budgets are agreed with Junts and the commons.
Three days later, Pedro Sánchez announces that he will replace the crime of sedition with that of aggravated public disorder.
On this day, Congress approves the 2023 State budget by a comfortable majority, which includes ERC, and Aragonès and Illa meet again at the Casa dels Canonges. They iron out rough edges and “things start to work out”. They agree on a working method through six thematic areas of negotiation and share documentation on income and expenses.
The negotiations continue with more intensity, but Aragonès moves to lighten an agreement that does not arrive and that prevents him from having the accounts in due time and form, on January 1 of this year.
Despite the fact that confidence seems to have been restored, Illa cooled optimism on December 1, proposing on TV3 a negotiation on an equal footing with the Government. He takes advantage of the imminent approval by the Council of Ministers of the penal reform, which reduces the president's ability to pressure. That is why Aragonès tries to recover ground by announcing an agreement with Catalan unions and employers, on December 5, with the agreed axes for the economic part of the budgets. Along with this agreement, the Government tied the support of En Comú Podem, on December 14.
The same day that Pere Aragonès and Jéssica Albiach take their photo signing their agreement, the president previously met with Illa, in the morning, again at the Casa dels Canonges. The Socialists interpret these pacts as an element of pressure: "If they cut back on the agreements you can reach, it makes it more difficult," they allege.
At the meeting, the president "squeezes Illa a lot" with the calendar but, although "the climate" of the talks had changed, the socialist makes him see that there is no agreement and insists on the conditions that just two weeks later - on December 28 – will present his party, including the B-40, the Hard Rock, the airport expansion and Rodalies.
The media pressure increases. The impatience of the Government, which ensures that the agreement was practically done, contrasts with the intransigence of the PSC with the infrastructures. The Government is so convinced that everything is ready that on January 12, Aragonès gave an interview to Catalunya Ràdio in which he stated that he was ready to convene the Executive Council "in a matter of hours". In his opinion, only the seal is missing. But the blockade is a fact and Aragonès takes the initiative, calls Illa and insists that they meet as soon as possible. They meet, and thus publicly transcends, halfway between the residences of both. On the top floor of the Xifré building in Arenys de Mar, they decided to leave the negotiations in the hands of the Minister Laura Vilagrà and Alícia Romero. The first transfers a specific proposal on Monday to him on the B-40, the great stumbling block, but the negative response is delayed.
On Thursday the 19th, the president takes advantage of the Spanish-French summit in Barcelona to ask Pedro Sánchez to intercede to soften up Illa. “He went to see Zumosol's cousin; an error ”, they point out in the PSC.
The PSC's response arrives in the form of a motion the next day. Romero tells Vilagrà by phone while the minister is in Viella. Those of Illa register a motion on infrastructures in the Parliament, which includes the B-40, which will be voted on the following week and will end up unraveling the agreement.
In ERC, however, there are those who notice that the motion may be an opportunity to close the negotiation. For the first time, the Republicans are open to studying the B-40 as a viable option to improve the connection between Terrasa and Sabadell. The offer does not convince the PSC at all. In a meeting in which Laura Vilagrà and Marta Vilalta are present on the one hand and Jordi Terrades on the other, the Republicans realize that either they swallow with the B-40 or everything is going to collapse. "We realized that the PSC had not wanted to approve the budgets during the entire negotiation," they say from Republican ranks.
Given this, Aragonès takes the reins. On the 25th at 5:00 p.m., he discreetly leaves the Parliament chamber, taking advantage of the fact that the journalists are off the record with the Republican Sergi Sabrià to meet Illa in the office of the Vice President of Parliament Alba Vergés, secretly and without anyone repair on it. At 7:00 p.m. the play is repeated. The president communicates to the leader of the PSC that he accepts the B-40, but that he needs the commitment that there will be budgets. First vote of confidence.
At 8:30 a.m. Illa goes to the Casa dels Canonges and makes sure that ERC will vote in favor of the socialist motion on infrastructure that is being debated in a few hours. "If so, the conditions for the agreement will be met," confirms Illa. The vote surprises locals and strangers and the socialist goes out publicly to acknowledge and thank the gesture, but not to consider the agreement closed. Before he wants to see what happens on Saturday at the ERC congress.
Aragonès also appears to justify the vote and the political cost assumed in exchange for having budgets and on Saturday he is applauded for his militancy.
On Monday the 30th the numbers are closed and on Tuesday, Illa receives a call from Aragonès while he is in Madrid, about to return to Barcelona. At the proposal of the PSC, they agree on the expression "gain capacity" for the airport. There is word agreement. They design the communication, although in the Government there was reluctance to a photo of both signing the pact. But this image had a precedent with Albiach, which otherwise would have attracted attention, so it was decided to follow the same script.
There are still fringes to close that morning and two hours after announcing the agreement there is "a moment of panic." In the Government they discuss some investments that make Aragonès and Illa intervene. They speak by phone on February 1 at 8:05 a.m., the president promises to fix it and the PSC summons the press.
The agreement document lacks an annex on local investments that is not closed until after Vilagrà has appeared from Palau to assess the pact. Second final vote of confidence well spent.
