The orbital train departs in the direction of the budgets
The idea of the orbital line is good, it is logical: It is so good and so logical that it already began to be planned 20 years ago, and the PSC already referred to it in its electoral program of 2024, so there is nothing new under the sun here. Problem: at best, they will take 15 years to finish it (2040), and Esquerra wants the State to pay for it. It is once again one of those conditions that do not depend on the two parties signing an agreement.
Today it is Barcelona's turn in the teachers' protests and the strikers have gathered in one of the most visible places in the city, the Sagrada Família. These strikes that teachers are carrying out by regions are multiplying the effect of the sector in struggle and are making the crisis long for the Government.Meanwhile, the Government is preparing for this week, which will be the staging of the budget agreement between the Government, Esquerra and Comuns.While Esquerra is convening the national council today to give the green light to the budgets, President Salvador Illa is going to Sant Sadurní d’Anoia today to present the initiative for the orbital railway line, the result of the agreement between the Government and Esquerra.
Esquerra has obtained the State's approval for the Barcelona Free Trade Zone Consortium to have a Catalan majorityIt is not the only agreement:
It seems that Esquerra has achieved the State's yes to the Barcelona Free Trade Zone Consortium having a Catalan majority, a majority with representatives from the Barcelona City Council and the Generalitat.
The big agreement, however, remains that of the new financing system. A singular financing for Catalonia but generalizable to all autonomies because, as you know, Catalonia is in the package of the 15 autonomies of common regime (all except the Basque Country and Navarra). With this new system, which will have to be defended by Pedro Sánchez's government, Andalusia will benefit more than Catalonia in absolute figures, around 4,800 million. And, even so, in the Andalusian campaign we have had to hear that this will trample on the interests of Andalusians (Moreno Bonilla said it literally). So much demagoguery from the president and candidate of the PP has not served him much, because he has lost the absolute majority he had and the PP will have to negotiate with Vox to govern Andalusia, exactly as has happened in Extremadura, Castilla y León and Aragón. The PSOE is sinking in the regional elections, yes, and the defeat is particularly hard in Andalusia, because it reigned there for four decades with five absolute majorities. But the PP is not exciting enough to gather all the right-wing and far-right vote around it.
And this is what they're holding onto in Moncloa, as they see that Sánchez has already surpassed Aznar in presidency time, and ahead of him is only Felipe González, who was there for nearly 14 years. And as a minister told me a few weeks ago: "Of course we'll reach 2027, and to win. In the Spanish government, nobody is throwing in the towel".
Good morning.
