The chances that the Government ends up approving the budgets of the Generalitat with the support of the PSC are cooling to a freezing point, at least by the voice of the Socialists. The reason, the "Caribbean rhythm" with which the Catalan Executive is taking over the company, which would allow it to have 3,100 million more to spend next year.
After the first meeting between the PSC parliamentary group and the Government in Palau, this Monday afternoon, Salvador Illa's formation concludes that the apathy with which the Government faces the issue is a symptom that, deep down, it is more for the definitive extension of the current accounts than for approving the new ones, and that everything has to do with a political calculation: this option, they conclude in the PSC, is more worthwhile for the ERC than a photo with the PSC at the gates of municipal elections.
Socialist sources corroborate that the meeting this Monday in Palau with the Ministers of the Presidency, Laura Vilagrà, and the Minister of Economy, Natàlia Mas, only served to learn about the budget framework, that is, macroeconomic data such as the spending ceiling, income , etc., which they already knew since they met in July with the previous Minister of Economy, Jaume Giró. In fact, the same sources denounce that in that meeting with Giró they obtained more information about the Government's intentions in budgetary matters than yesterday, when they were only presented with "three slides".
The socialist delegation, formed by the deputy and spokesperson for the Alícia Romero group, the deputy Jordi Riba and the coordinator Nelia Martínez, left with little more information. Just a couple of important facts. The Government intends to approve the budgets in the Consell Executiu at the beginning of December -a week before, those of the State should have been approved in Congress- and it intends to carry out the debate of the amendments to the whole before Christmas.
These forecasts further reinforce the pessimistic impressions of the PSC. Those of Illa made it known to the Executive yesterday that they will not negotiate after the Consell Executiu approves the numbers. They want a negotiation before they end up in the Catalan Chamber, so that it does not happen like last year, when the accounts were supported by the commons a posteriori, with practically no room for maneuver to make incorporations and, in fact, those of Jéssica Albiach have verified how many of the agreements reached with the Government have not been fulfilled.
To ensure the shot, the Socialists are only willing to negotiate before the Govern approves the accounts and have also made it known to the Catalan Executive that they will not be able to count on them to approve the budgets "in pieces" once extended, that is, not they will support no budget expansion of the current accounts in 2023. The position is unshakable, to the point that Illa has communicated to the country's entities and groups, with whom she has been meeting for weeks, that she will not respond to pressure.
In short, the PSC believes that the calendar handled by the Government is "unrealistic" because to comply with it there would have to be a full negotiation, with permanent meetings and focused on the details of numbers and items, something that does not even happen with them, nor with the common ones, nor with Junts. "They must think that the risk of the photo of the agreement with the PSC is greater than that of the extension," they suspect in the socialist group, because "surely they are waiting for so many things that have no margin."
The wait goes on forever as a result of the multiple pieces of the budgetary puzzle, where one piece moves all the others: the reform of the crime of sedition of the Penal Code, an issue that the leader of the ERC, Oriol Junqueras, has used again this Tuesday as a bargaining chip for an agreement with the socialists.
"I see it difficult to approve agreed budgets before December" and "I see a definitive budget extension as very possible," says the same source. Even so, the Socialists reaffirm their outstretched hand and their willingness to negotiate when necessary, but "we should accelerate" because if we are already going to a technical extension, the PSC will find it practically impossible to maintain the same attitude beyond, in full pre-campaign.
The pessimism that invades the Socialists contrasts with the impression of the commons, convinced that if the Government wants it can close a budget agreement with them and with the PSC in three weeks, before the parliamentary processing of the draft begins. But for this, they agree with the PSC that the negotiations should start now.
The commons base their feeling on the fact that the Government conveyed to them its will to have budgets in 2023 and reinforce that opinion on the fact that only in this way will President Pere Aragonès be able to sustain the legislature beyond the municipal elections. Those of Albiach eliminate Junts from the equation, whom they do not see with the attitude of agreeing on budgets and with whom they proclaim themselves incompatible: "In the end we have different, contradictory country models: they propose cuts in income and tax reductions to those who most have" and "we" have more resources.
