The Comuns have paralyzed Barcelona’s tax ordinances and assure that the pact they had reached with the PSC is “broken.” The reason for the dispute is a disagreement with the municipal policy regarding cruise ships that has caused the Commons to reserve their vote during the Economy and Finance commission this Wednesday afternoon.
As a consequence, the ERC municipal group – which had also agreed to the favorable vote – has also reserved its vote. “Agreements require majorities so that the work that some of us have done is not in vain. We reserve the vote waiting for the situation to be different,” they noted.
There is still a way to go with the ordinances. Although this afternoon’s vote is a technical formality that serves to take the pulse of the different municipal groups, the final vote will be taken in the plenary session next Friday. Both ERC and Comuns are open to voting favorably. Of course, in exchange for conditions. Republicans ask for a secured majority. And the Commons ask for “coherence.”
The disagreement that has blown up at the last minute the agreement that Janet Sanz’s party had with the PSC to approve the tax ordinances comes from another pact reached between both parties, this one to reduce the cruise terminals from seven to five.
This is an agreement that was endorsed months ago and that is being finalized at a bilateral table between the council and the Port of Barcelona. But this Tuesday, the PSC sent to the Commons a draft in which the municipal government “confirms and positively values that the Port plans to enable a mini-terminal” that provides service to luxury ships, which have a substantially lower capacity – 1,000 passengers.
And here comes the discrepancy: Sanz considers that this note means giving up the agreement to reduce two cruise terminals – which would mean subtracting 1.2 annual tourists from the city. But for his part, Valls denies the major issue and assures that if the luxury terminal were to be built, “the Port will have to decide how to do it with the terminals it has left.” “The mathematics is clear. We have agreed to go from five to seven. If the Port asks for one more terminal, there would be six. And we have agreed to go down to five,” Valls reiterated.
According to the PSC, the council “has not proposed this terminal and it was not part of the agreement with the Comuns.” They refer to an agreement – regardless of tax ordinances – in which both parties committed to reducing the port terminals and reducing the number of cruise passengers. Along these same lines, last September the mayor reached an agreement with the Generalitat to “substantially” increase the tourist tax on cruise ships that make stops of less than 12 hours.
But this response has not satisfied the Commons, who ask for “deeds and not words” before giving their favorable vote on Friday. And they disfigure the PSC government that, “with one hand they make progressive policies and raise taxes on tourism and with the other they propose compensation for the sector.”
Janet Sanz considers that the new terminal “runs aground” the negotiations that, for months, PSC and Comuns maintain to approve the tax ordinances, which are a dress rehearsal for the negotiation of the city’s budgets, while Valls disgraces the Comuns for “converting a ghost terminal that does not exist into a new Hard Rock in order not to approve the ordinances ”.
Budgets hanging by a thread
Until this week, everything suggested that the ordinances would be approved without problems, after the PSC had adopted a large part of the demands of both the Comuns and the ERC and agreed, among other things, to increase the IBI for luxury hotels and tourist infrastructure, as well as charging higher rates for visitor buses.
But at the last moment, the negotiations have gone awry and this not only endangers the ordinances – Barcelona still has those for 2022 extended – but also the budgets. Given that the rest of the opposition groups have already announced that they will vote against, Collboni needs the votes of ERC – which he has almost assured – and the Comuns.
If those from Albiach decide to vote against, as they did last year, the municipal accounts will not go forward. Last year, Collboni was forced to activate the vote of confidence, a measure by which a mayor can unblock stalled negotiations.
It is about linking the decision to the same continuity of the mayor. If the opposition fails to agree and present an alternative candidate, the mandate and the negotiation in question are automatically endorsed.
This is what happened in 2023, but the motion of confidence is a card that can only be played twice per mandate and never two years in a row, so Collboni depends on the favor of the Comuns to move forward with his accounts and also his mandate.
#Comuns #paralyze #Barcelonas #tax #ordinances #due #disagreement #cruise #ships
