Antoni Bassas' analysis: 'Financing and all those who said independence was unrealistic'

Yesterday, something unprecedented occurred: the Catalan government publicly stated that it disagreed with the Spanish government. This is no small feat, given that we're talking about two socialist governments, with a president of the Generalitat who had previously been a Spanish minister and whose PSOE spokesperson is from the PSC. In other words, when two such similar groups disagree publicly, it's news.

They have come up against ordinality, absent from the bilateral agreement the day before yesterday. The Government has said that there must be ordinality And the Moncloa government responded that it was an issue that should be addressed with all the autonomous regions, "within the framework of the reform of regional financing."

The government has taken the step of publicizing its disagreement with Madrid because ERC, which holds the executive's reins here, can't hide the fact that the bilateral meeting the other day was disappointing. And it activated figures such as Dolors Bassa and Carme Forcadell to say that the agreement was "another joke," which is quite similar to what Turull of Junts said: "A flip-flop."

This morning, in the control session in Parliament, ERC slightly, very slightly, moved Salvador Illa's chair when the Republican spokesperson, Josep Maria Jové, told him that the bilateral agreement was short-lived. And that, if he doesn't rectify his position, the legislature will falter because it won't have a budget. Don't worry, if this warning were an earthquake, it would be a major one. What did the president respond? Isla recommitted to the agreements with ERC for which he was sworn in (uniqueness, ordinality) and defended himself with the argument that here the agreement seems insufficient, while in Madrid, it seems as if Spain is falling apart. He placed great emphasis on the fact that the foundations for a new financing model have been created, but admitted to ERC, with a "you're right," that there is still work to be done.

The debate over financing is tiresome for many reasons, especially because it's been going on for decades, but it's very interesting. Above all, for two reasons. All those who, during the years of the Process, said that independence was a pipe dream and that they were in favor of realistic goals, now once again face the harsh reality: the pipe dream is to improve Catalonia's financing. Now they have no choice but to side with the ordinal system. The Chambers of Commerce, Pimec, FemCat, the RACC, the College of Economists, Fira de Barcelona... all of them declared themselves in favor of ordinal system yesterday.

And the discussion is also interesting, because all the Spaniards who have always accused Catalonia of being unsupportive now come out and say that without Catalonia's money they won't be able to pay their salaries, as Ayuso explained, without going any further. So, what's the bottom line: were we supportive or not? A rhetorical question, of course.

Good morning.