Political consensus has not broken through, not even a partial agreement. The Government and the parties of the parliamentary arc, except Vox, have not been able to reach an agreement to reconcile the framework for action in the face of the deep water crisis that Catalonia is experiencing. The stumbling block that has put an end to this summit, the sanctioning regime that fell on the city councils set by the Catalan Executive in the decree of urgent measures approved a month ago and validated by the Parliament only with the favorable votes of ERC.
The Catalan Executive attended this summit in Palau appealing to the "co-responsibility" of parties and institutions after having approved a decree, with urgent measures of restrictions and sanctions that fell on the municipalities. But the last preparatory meeting held between all the actors this Friday morning did not give rise to optimism, in fact, sources familiar with it assure that the subsequent summit was endangered.
The sanctioning regime included in the initial decree of the Government provoked criticism from the parties, especially from the PSC and Junts. The Socialists demanded its elimination or at least a one-year moratorium on its application, while Junts exclusively demanded its suppression. The Catalan Executive, in the proposed agreement that it has brought to the summit, proposed deferring the application of said sanctions until July 1, 2023. Although the Government moved that date -initially it was June 1- the proposal has not been accepted.
In a press appearance from Palau, the Minister of Climate Action, Teresa Jordà, has once again insisted that the will of the Government is not to sanction, but to "dissuade" the municipalities that do not comply with the restrictions or exceed 230 liters of water per day per person set in the initial decree law. But the agreement has not been possible, although the proposed date seemed to have a general consensus, "a group in particular has not agreed", she explained, referring to the PSC. "If we had moved this, we would not have had an agreement either because other groups considered that it should be kept that way," with the moratorium until July 1.
The Socialists assure that they were willing to modulate their demands on the moratorium to reduce it to six months, but they recalled that the president promised to speak about the sanctioning regime in parliament. Therefore, "if someone should feel lacking, it is the PSC", has reproached the socialist spokesperson for the branch, the deputy Sílvia Paneque. In any case, the PSC continues to consider that it is a mistake to "penalize" the municipalities with the sanctions provided for in the decree and that is the attitude that they will maintain in the processing of the decree as a bill in Parliament.
Junts, which according to sources familiar with the course of the summit agreed with the postponement until July 1, has finally distanced itself. The president of the parliamentary group, Albert Batet, has come out in a rush to denounce "the lack of leadership of a weak Government that has acted late and badly", and that has caused "a new failure of the Government". Batet has verified that they have been left "alone" in the demand for the elimination of sanctions. "It is a pity that some think more about the party than about the country" and "they have not been able to move on such an important issue as the drought."
Thus, the leader of Junts has advanced that his group plans to present a bill that they will register by single reading with the measures they deem appropriate against the crisis. In this way, the post-convergents intend to take the initiative in this matter trying to unite a parliamentary majority that highlights the weakness of the 33 ERC deputies.
The shame and disappointment has been shared by the CUP and En Comú Podem, which has regretted that the Government has allowed itself to be "dragged" by "electoral tactics at the gates of the municipal ones", with PSC and Junts as protagonists, on account of the sanctioning regime.
In any case, the Government will go ahead with its plans, and "there will be no new decree", they warn. The one validated in Parliament will be processed as a bill with the aim of agreeing on it with enough parliamentary groups to definitively approve it.
The criticism from the parties and municipalities about the nature of the initial decree of the Government forced Pere Aragonès to convene this summit, aware that the crisis due to the scarcity of water can complicate his life in an election year, especially if they have to take more drastic measures this summer, such as water cuts in the metropolitan area or in coastal municipalities. Perhaps the electoral calendar has weighed enough for there not to have been the global consensus that this crisis would require.
This is how Jordà has slipped it, who has indicated that to reach an agreement "it only took desire, little desire." There has to be the will to achieve it," but "I don't know if this would have happened if we were at the gates of an election."
