After signing the first budget agreement with the Government of Salvador Illa, the president of Esquerra Republicana, Oriol Junqueras, defended the pact reached because it fulfills – in his opinion – a “double function.” On one hand, because it resolves the “everyday problems” of Catalonia with budget allocation and, on the other, because it provides the opportunity to “achieve more powers and tools in favor of the country.”
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In this regard, Junqueras pointed out that this budget project is also important because it responds to the “need to plan for the future,” emphasizing areas such as mobility, industry, health, education, or housing. Therefore, the leader of the republicans has claimed the “central role” that his party wants to play to “give the country all possible tools.” “We aspire to obtain all resources and all powers, but at this moment we are convinced that what we can do is approve a budget and reach other agreements that accompany these accounts,” he stressed.
From this perspective, he highlighted the additional 500 million for education, 250 for health, or 210 for housing rehabilitation (160 from the Generalitat’s budget and 50 from a credit line from the Institut Català de Finances). The republicans also value the 50 million allocated to the creation of audiovisual content on social networks for the promotion of the Catalan language, one of the pillars on which this agreement is based.
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Regarding the “sovereignty gains,” Oriol Junqueras emphasized the orbital train, the reformulation of the Consorci de la Zona Franca de Barcelona, the promotion of the investment mercantile company, and the deployment of the Catalan Treasury so that it has the technical and human means to collect the IRPF. The first three will be detailed in the bilateral State-Generalitat meeting to be held tomorrow afternoon in Madrid.
About the delegation of the IRPF, Junqueras insisted that they do not give up on it and plan to register an amendment in the parliamentary process of the entire legislative package associated with the financing model that enables the Generalitat to collect this tax. The republicans estimate that this process could start in September.
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The budget agreement occurs in a context of mobilizations in the education sector, with several strikes planned in these last weeks of the school year. Tomorrow there is a new meeting of the sectoral table. From ERC they argue that “it makes no sense” to reach an agreement in the budgets on how to channel this situation because the pact that could be produced must depend directly on the Government and the unions.
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In any case, the leader of Esquerra Republicana considers that the Catalan Executive now already has the resources to have the margin that fosters the agreement. There are 500 million extra for education. In this line, Junqueras pointed out that, if there is an understanding, it will be incorporated through amendments during the parliamentary process and, thus, there will be a specific allocation to this possible agreement.
“Our job is to help and we will be there for whatever is needed, but it is not about reaching a concrete agreement on a possible salary increase, but that the budgets can support and accompany the possible pacts that the Government and the unions eventually reach,” specified the top leader of the republican formation.
Asked about the voices that yesterday requested in the national council that the agreement be put to a vote, the president of ERC stated that “such a matter has never been voted on”: “The membership votes in congresses and national conferences, and it is in these spaces where the party’s strategic lines are decided.”
With the agreement closed, several of the commitments reached have a medium-term trajectory, so they go beyond this year. The feeling is that these will be the only budgets of the legislature, and that precisely their validation paves the way for Illa’s mandate to last until 2028. Junqueras avoided placing himself in future scenarios but did not rule out a negotiation for the 2027 accounts: “If we have the 4,700 million extra from the new model, it will be evaluated at the time.”
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