The PSC demands political counterparts from Esquerra to approve the Catalan budgets

The political debate over Catalan budgets does not respect the Parliament’s Christmas break. The PSC raises its tone and warns Esquerra that, if it wants to have their support, next year’s accounts must contain visible socialist traces. It is not just about money, PSC negotiators warn. For now, the plan to open delegations of the Generalitat abroad has to be frozen. Savings and slimming down of the autonomous administration, maintains the PSC spokesperson, Alícia Romero. The package also includes the abolition of the figure of the Generalitat delegate in Barcelona, ​​a figure currently held by Joan Borràs, and evaluating the advisability of eliminating the delegations in Girona, Tarragona and Lleida. The PSC also wants the Center d’Estudis d’Opinió (CEO), the Catalan CIS, to come under the Parliament and not be directly controlled by the presidency. Likewise, it is requested to end the Government’s wide sleeve to grant subsidies to the media, and that the aid be scrutinized in parliamentary commission.

ERC continues to ensure that the approval of the accounts is only a matter of days but its potential partners, Junts and the PSC, cool the expectations of the Government. The Socialists have released this Wednesday the list of demands that they have left on the table of Pere Aragonès to give their support to the budget. There are already known claims, the case of the expansion of the Barcelona-El Prat airport, guarantees on the Hard Rock tourist mega-complex in Salou and the development of the section of the Fourth Belt between Sabadell and Terrassa, but new claims have been revealed. An important part of the demands are counterparts with marked political content. The PSC does not hide the discomfort caused by the Government’s negotiating strategy, which anticipated an agreement with En Comú Podem and which is trying to set the pace of the talks, despite having a slim majority in Parliament. “Right now there are 41 votes to approve the budgets, they need 68,” Alícia Romero recalled. The PSC spokeswoman has avoided talking about ultimatums, but she has specified that in two months there have been 14 meetings between the Socialists and the Government and that the time has come to finalize an agreement.

Salvador Illa’s team did not like Pere Aragonès’ speech for Sant Esteve. “I am very disappointed that he continues to insist on setting impossible horizons for Catalonia and that they are not a point of consensus,” criticized the head of the opposition. Esquerra maintains that the rapprochement with the PSC to unlock the accounts is on the right track and considers that the socialist reproaches are gestural artifices. Alícia Romero replies that the agreement proposal that they have left on the table of the Government does not admit nuances: “It includes what we consider essential to be incorporated into the budgets.”

In this sense, the expansion of the Barcelona-El Prat airport is non-negotiable for the Socialists. They ask that, from the outset, the expansion of the ZEPA areas of special protection for birds in the Llobregat delta be halted. Likewise, the development of the Cuarto Cinturón section in El Vallès is also indicated as a red line to improve mobility between Sabadell and Terrassa. In Esquerra, the Fourth Belt raises blisters. They describe it as a “sociovergent” project and last June the Government stood up to the Minister of Transport Raquel Sánchez in an act where she announced that the Government was responsible for the costs of expanding the known as B-40.

The PSC also seeks to put pressure on Esquerra on other issues that are controversial for the party that rules in the Generalitat. One of them is the Hard Rock project in Salou, also known as BCNWorld. “We want it to get unstuck,” says Romero, while pointing out that the tourist complex has an impact of 1,000 jobs. Rodalies also comes into play. On a recurring basis, the Ministry of Territori blames Renfe, Adif and the Ministry of Transport for the malfunctioning of the railway network. The PSC alleges that the Gebneralitat has not signed the program contract with Renfe that should serve to improve the train fleet. You have to sign it as a condition to unlock the accounts, warn the Socialists.

The new year will start with the budgets blocked, and the PSC tightens the rope. “I cannot imagine that the Government will not accept them, if it is true that they want budgets for next year,” Romero pointed out, referring to the list of requests.

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