The Government has moved a few hours before the debate in Parliament on the processing of the 2024 budgets. It has done so on an issue, the Hard Rock, on which last week it assured that there was no margin. “And the common people know it,” the spokesperson for the Catalan Executive, Patrícia Plaja, even said. In addition to the pact signed with the PSC, the Government only has the possibility of an agreement with those of Jéssica Albiach, which is why the Cabinet of Pere Aragonès has now opened the door to talking about the project. But in no case, government sources assure, does the proposal stop the processing or the urban development plan (PDU) of the recreational complex.
The Republicans give no clues. They assure that the solution does not apply to applying a moratorium to the Hard Rock. Vice President Laura Vilagrà ruled it out this Monday in Ser. But she did not deny that a movement is being proposed in relation to the project. “We will do what we can do,” she said.
Sergi Sabrià, deputy minister of the Government, also avoided being forceful with the project proposed in Vila-seca and Salou: “We can find ways, but they are not the PDU.”
Whatever idea it has in mind, the Government has to strike a balance so as not to let the PSC, a firm supporter of Hard Rock, out of the agreement. In fact, Salvador Illa, first secretary of the Catalan socialists, was finally convinced to vote in favor of the Generalitat's budget after Pere Aragonès assured in a plenary session of the Parliament that there is no possibility of stopping the project.
However, Esquerra also plays another card. This one, in Madrid. There have already been contacts with the leader of Sumar, Yolanda Díaz, so that she can try to make the position of the commons more flexible. Unsuccessfully.
Marta Vilalta, deputy general secretary and spokesperson for ERC, did not deny in a press conference that there had been calls to Díaz. “We always have conversations with everyone,” she expressed at a press conference every time she was asked about this possibility. The general budgets of the State could be in danger if the Catalans do not move forward.
But the common people have been warning for days that these pressure movements will be useless because Díaz “shares” their position.
Therefore, for the moment, they are holding their own, maintaining the condition of “discarding Hard Rock” and their determination to overthrow the budgets this Wednesday, when the amendments to the entirety presented, the last one, that of Junts, will be debated in Parliament. The post-convergents warned that they will only withdraw it if the inheritance tax is eliminated.
Although this Monday the Government and the Albiach party held a new meeting, “everything remains the same,” say parliamentary sources, who do not deny that the Catalan Executive has explored some proposal regarding Hard Rock. But the aforementioned sources describe their degree of satisfaction as “between zero and nothing.” They see the Government “trapped with the PSC”, thus attributing a good part of the blame also to the socialists, who this Monday called the refusal of the commons to approve the budgets for this project an “excuse”.
The commons will continue sitting at the table until time runs out and say that they are not worried about the consequences of not finally reaching an agreement, not even at the last minute, as has sometimes happened. “Will ERC be able to stop approving these budgets for a project that not even they defend? It is the question that Aragonès has to answer,” said party spokesperson Joan Mena this Monday.
