Councilor Laura Vilagrà (Santpedor, 1976) keeps in her office a photograph of the Councilors of the Presidency that have existed until today. Vilagrà has gained importance for some time and has been a fundamental piece in the budget negotiations with the Socialists.
How do you assess the pact with the PSC?
What the two parties have done, together with En Comú Podem, is to put the interests of the country above other considerations. It was what we played and we had to live up to it.
Did agreeing first with the commons and with the social and economic agents hurt you when negotiating with the socialists?
We began to negotiate at the same time with Junts, the PSC and En Comú Podem. With the latter we came from an agreement the previous year to facilitate budgets and we had a previous job. It is logical that we finished the negotiation with them before. And the understanding with the social and economic agents is part of this way of doing things of the Republican Government, which is to collaborate, agree.
But on previous occasions there had not been a prior agreement with the unions and employers.
It is certainly the first time in history that this concertation work is carried out with unions, employers, the Third Sector or Actua Cultura. In a very complex political moment, not only in Catalonia, political consensus is not so easy. This way of doing has come to stay. It nurtured the budgeting process and next year we will follow this scheme.
Did they come to think that the budgets would not be sealed with the PSC?
Do not sell the bear skin until it is hunted. The negotiation was long. Catalan politics has us accustomed to long and intense negotiations and aspects are debated until the last minute. It cannot be said that these budgets are not worked out and are very close to the public in a context of still high inflation.
Is the agreement for the B-40 a swallow for ERC?
Our mobility model is different. But validating the motion [of the PSC on the B-40] has facilitated the approval of the budgets.
And do you consider that the PSC has swallowed the agreement for the future of El Prat airport by not including "expansion" in the text?
In a negotiation, everyone approximates positions. We agree that the airport has to be a true international hub and that the routes are point to point to respond to the needs of the economy and citizens. We agree that it can be modernized and gain capacity. And that the Generalitat has a greater weight in governance is also important.
Without budgets, would there have been early elections?
It is not automatic, but having budgets reinforces the policies that the Government wants to carry out and these give an additional 3,800 million euros.
Will it join together?
We are still asking today that they join this budget project, because we incorporated up to 79% of the proposals that Junts had made to us. You have to have all responsibilities and height of vision. Everyone has understood that they were necessary, from the teacher who saw that the January payroll was not increased by 2.5% because she did not have a budget, to the person who receives social benefits and who had it frozen.
In JxCat they have complained several times that the Government has not made the same effort to negotiate with them as with the PSC.
You have broadcast all the meetings and have been aware that the pace of negotiations has been with the same intensity.
Also at Christmas?
We could not meet because the agenda was not given by Junts. We negotiated throughout Christmas [with the PSC]. But in any case, and in order not to go into whether there were 25, 20 or 23 meetings, what is important is the quality of the negotiation. Junts did a preliminary job of presenting proposals and we responding to them.
They studied the extension of the 2022 accounts.
Out of responsibility, we studied what it would mean to have no budgets and we estimated the losses in the event that there had been no budgets at more than 1,500 million euros. It would have been completely irresponsible. It is a figure that we explained in the negotiation so that everyone was aware.
On October 8, Junqueras stated that he would never settle accounts with the PSC because they are the ones who "have reddened their hands applauding" his imprisonment. Did these words hurt you for the negotiation?
At that time we were not working on specific proposals with the PSC in any area. We have made a specific agreement for the budgets, I want to make it very clear. It is not a legislature pact.
Were there dissensions in the national ERC congress last weekend over the B-40 agreement?
We are a living party that is not afraid of debates. We reaffirm our political position and our strategy, which is none other than agreeing to a referendum with the State. In this framework we were very clear and the political report and the statutes had a broad consensus. We close ranks. The political conflict must end by voting in an agreed referendum. We have different criteria with the other side of the table, with the State, but we are very clear that sooner or later there must be an agreed referendum.
Have blocks been broken with the agreement with the PSC?
As for the country model and as to how to resolve the political conflict, we are still a long way off. We have to work for a clear agreement and establish conditions for a self-determination referendum. We would like the Socialist Party to take this step. In previous political presentations they had defended this option.
That Aragonès warned of consequences to Sánchez during the Spanish-French summit if there were no budgets from the Generalitat to increase the yes of the PSC?
They both talk often and on many topics. But it is not the Government, but the citizens that needed these budgets and it was in this context that this approximation was made.
But Rufián veiledly threatened Sánchez in Congress not to approve the gag law or the housing law, for example. Has this notice been disabled?
All these laws are very important and what we do is negotiate law by law, putting the citizenry at the center defending our postulates. We want to repeal the gag law, but we also want a text that is adapted to the 21st century.
Is there any possibility that the dialogue table will meet during 2023?
The appointment that was not given at the end of last year is a breach. In any case, it should be noted that there were already results, especially in the matter of de-judicialization. The repeal of the crime of sedition occurred when few people believed it. Embezzlement was also changed. There was no photo, but we prefer the results to the photo.
Have you been surprised that Llarena does not apply public disorder and does aggravate the embezzlement for Puigdemont?
We have shaken and put into many contradictions the entire Spanish judicial system. The TC says some things, Mr. Llarena others, the Prosecutor's Office tries to maneuver... We knew perfectly well that this could happen, because the Spanish judiciary is in a deep crisis of legitimacy due to politicization and they are arm wrestling the State Government. We knew that they would make a captious and twisted interpretation, but the reform is done and its parameters must be applied.
There are former high officials who are still under threat of prosecution for embezzlement.
The assessment that prestigious jurists and criminal lawyers have made is that none of those who are now pending trial or exiled are in a worse situation. On the contrary. You have to see what happens, but each trial will have its situation.
Junts says that the reform of the Penal Code is useless.
We'll see, but for now we have it on the table.
Is reconciliation with Junts possible?
We try to build bridges. Negotiating the budgets I have tried to work and be tough with the approaches and the contents, but from a personal point of view I maintain an absolute dialogue.
Do they aspire to govern until 2025?
To transform the country we do not have enough with a few budgets or two. We need a certain amount of time and resources and depth, so we need a full legislature. It is good that legislatures last what corresponds to them to develop public policies.
With the support of only 33 deputies?
The very approval of the budgets will demonstrate that with a lot of effort and negotiation it is possible to reach agreements and move the legislature forward. The global political context is complicated everywhere. in the Spanish state. Or President Macron himself has difficulties in passing laws and does so through decrees. In England the situation of instability is evident.
Will they invest Sánchez again to avoid a PP government?
We do not give any endowment for free. We want to work on the possibility of an agreed referendum.
But there is not even a consensus among independentistas.
Pardons were not believed possible, nor was the repeal of sedition. President Aragonès has tenacity, initiative and determination and he has amply demonstrated it. We are open to improving the clarity agreement and contributions from other pro-independence parties or those who defend self-determination or those who are in favor of democracy.
