2023-12-26 22:07:53
BarcelonaOn Thursday of last week, Pere Aragonès met with Pedro Sánchez at the Palau de la Generalitat to officialize the start of the new stage of dialogue with the State. A new phase that the Government wants to serve to focus on the negotiation of an agreed referendum, but also to gain sovereignty to manage day-to-day life. And the reform of regional financing is among the measures that the executive sees as essential to improve self-government. In fact, the president of the Generalitat, Pere Aragonès, has instructed the Ministry of Economy to present a proposal for “singular financing”, that is to say, a new fiscal pact, in the next three months. The president’s goal is to reach an agreement with the State on this issue next year itself. “2024 must be the year in which we agree on unique financing with the State that puts an end to an unbearable fiscal deficit,” Aragonès said in his third Sant Esteve speech.
The president of the Generalitat wants to put an end to a fiscal deficit that he has described as “unbearable” and to ensure that it is the Generalitat that collects all the taxes, in addition to defining a solidarity quota. A proposal of which the Spanish government is wary. Pedro Sánchez, in fact, bet last week to develop the competences of the Catalan Tax Agency established by the Statute. A thesis that was also defended this Tuesday by the leader of the PSC, Salvador Illa, in an interview with the ACN: “It is a path that can be traveled”.
New stage of dialogue and amnesty
Apart from this issue, Aragonès has claimed some of the fruits of the negotiation with the State such as the transfer of Rodalies or also the management of the minimum vital income. This last issue is one of those that Aragonès agreed with Sánchez last Thursday, where they also agreed that the first meeting of the dialogue table to address the political conflict will be before next April. “2024 must be the year in which we approach the second phase of the negotiation process with the State, where Catalonia must be able to freely decide its future,” Aragonès reiterated. The Government wants to put on the Spanish government’s table the clarity agreement drawn up by a group of experts that they presented this autumn.
This new phase of dialogue with the State must go in parallel with the materialization of the amnesty law for those accused of the Process, Aragonès stressed: “2024 must be the year in which the law of “amnesty is approved, fully applied and allows the freedom and return to Catalonia of people retaliated against for their commitment to the referendum”. The regulation has begun its processing in Congress a few weeks ago.
A “majority” by accounts
The Government closes the year without new budgets for next year. That is why Aragonès has also used his institutional speech to ask for “responsibility and commitment” from the parliamentary groups, especially the PSC and the commons – who already endorsed last year’s accounts – even though the Government is also exploring support of Together and the CUP. Aragonès has assured that he is ready to “build” a majority in Parliament to make the accounts possible. “This is what I am asking of the parliamentary groups and I am convinced that we will all be up to it,” he remarked.
This year, Aragonès delivered his speech from the King Martí repository – last year he did it from the Library of Catalonia and two years ago at the Rosselló-Pòrcel school in Santa Coloma de Gramenet–. This tank was restored in 2016 and is located in Sant Gervasi, near Antoni Gaudí’s Bellesguard tower, built on the last fortress of Martí L’Humà. The president wanted to convey, in this way, his “commitment” to face the serious drought crisis that Catalonia is experiencing. A crisis that Aragonès has reiterated will “require an effort” from all of society, the same effort that will be needed to face the educational crisis resulting from the results of the latest PISA report.
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