While the Minister of Economy, Jaume Giró, draws up the budgets and tries to come to an agreement with a parliamentary group so that they go ahead, the Government has received with a certain boredom both the proposal by José Luis Escrivá, Minister of Inclusion, to centralize taxes , such as the call by Juanma Moreno Bonilla, President of Andalusia, to Catalan businessmen to locate their headquarters in their community after the abolition of the wealth tax approved today by the Board. The Catalan Executive has branded the Andalusian president's measure a "populist auction" and has urged him to leave the Catalans alone.
It was the spokeswoman for the Government, Patrícia Plaja, who expressed herself in these terms in the press conference this afternoon following the meeting of the Executive Council. A meeting that Jordi Puigneró exceptionally presided over today, since Pere Aragonès is in the United States together with the Climate Action Minister, Teresa Jordà. Also absent for different reasons are the minister of the Interior, Joan Ignasi Elena, the minister of External Action, Victòria Alsina, and the head of Culture, Natàlia Garriga.
"Mr. Moreno would do well to focus and guide his policies by putting the Andalusian citizens at the center, instead of looking once again at the Government of Catalonia", assured Plaja before blurting out: "Leave the Catalans in peace". The spokeswoman has insisted that Catalonia will decide its taxes always taking into account the needs of the Catalans and "not entering in any case in a populist auction that does not contribute anything". However, Plaja has stressed that the Government does not fear a flight of capital to Andalusia: "There is no fear."
The circumstance occurs that Aragonès has reiterated on different occasions that a reduction of the wealth tax is not in its plans. The president's position collides with that of Junts, who in July promised to relax both the heritage and succession.
Regarding the fiscal harmonization proposal formulated by Escrivá, the spokeswoman for the Catalan Cabinet has attributed to the PSOE a “tendency to centralize everything in several areas”. For Plaja, recentralization is never the best option and in any case she has pointed out the opposite, that is, that the Government works with the intention of administering 100% of its taxes.
Be that as it may, the Government now has as a priority the preparation of the 2023 budgets regardless of any external noise. Not only from the one that he considers comes from Andalusia or from the central government, but also from the one generated by the constant fights between ERC and Junts. The ministers of both parties have conspired for a week so that the Government is "the last of the spaces where the differences between the two parties have repercussions", something that Plaja has assured that they are achieving. However, the spokeswoman has openly acknowledged the "obvious, known discrepancies" between the two partners of the Government.
