ERC, in a minority at the head of the municipal government of Tarragona, has managed to approve the 2023 budget today thanks to an agreement in extremis with En Comú Podem (ECP).

The containment of the price of the bus ticket, a condition imposed by the Comuns in the negotiations, has guaranteed their abstention in the municipal plenary session and has given the green light to the accounts, extended for two years.

The budgets have been approved with the votes in favor of the members of the municipal government, led by ERC together with Junts, the CUP and the non-attached councilor Hernán Pinedo, formerly in ECP, and the abstention of the only mayor of the Comuns, Angels Perez. "Politics is there to solve problems, not to create them, that's why we have negotiated until the end," Pérez stressed. PSC, PP and Ciutadans have voted against.

This difficult game of balances has required negotiations and new budgets cooked "over a slow fire and conscientiously", as Jordi Fortuny (ERC), mayor of Economy and Hisenda in the Tarragona City Council, has pointed out.

The bus ticket will go up in 2023 but only ten cents, as required by ECP, and not 40 cents, as the municipal government expected.

The approval of the budgets allows ERC to guarantee the investments planned for next year, with the support of Next Generation funds, five months before the municipal elections. Investments focused on improving park-and-ride parking, mobility and, above all, renewable energy, with the promotion of solar panels in sports facilities and LED lights.

The budgets, of almost 187 million, include 10.8 million in the investment chapter. The expected current spending amounts to 175 million, pushed in part by the increase in energy prices.

The mayor of Tarragona, Pau Ricomà, highlighted the demonstration of "strength" by the municipal government despite being in the minority.