Aragonès agrees with CUP to submit to confidence vote halfway through term

BarcelonaThe pre-agreement between Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC) and CUP includes a confidence vote for Pere Aragonès in the middle of the legislature in exchange for the investiture and the approval of the budgets of the Generalitat. This is explained by Esquerra's presidential candidate in an article in the ARA in which he celebrates having reached an agreement with CUP, which is yet to be ratified by internal organs, and he thanks them for their "effort". "I am convinced, and so we have agreed with the CUP, that it is good and healthy that after I become president of the Generalitat I submit to a confidence vote halfway through my term as mutual assessment, to renew the agreement and to reinforce the stability of the Government", Aragonès explains in the article.

The current vice-president of the Government explains that adopting this commitment "ensures the investiture and the approval of the budgets", providing a "totally necessary stability" to the legislature. In his opinion, it is the first "stone of the new republican Generalitat" to create a Government "of shared struggles" and to "advance in the great consensuses" of the Catalan society. However, Esquerra has not yet reached any agreement closed right now with Junts per Catalunya (JxCat), whose 32 seats will be necessary for him to be invested. There is still a long way to negotiate.

In this sense, Aragonès admits that they now have "the obligation" to "intensify" negotiations with the CUP and Junts per Catalunya to "solidify" a pact. "Given the difficulties that the country is experiencing, I am convinced that we can weave a government agreement that allows us to face with all the strength and without further delay the social urgencies, the economic reconstruction and a solution to the conflict with the State," says Aragonès, who concludes that "the moment requires everyone's willingness to agree".

The pre-agreement between Esquerra and the CUP arrives without a consensus with Junts per Catalunya, who claims that it found out yesterday of the alliance "a few minutes before" the parties made it public. This Monday, Junts spokesperson Elsa Artadi claimed that this does not put "more pressure" on them and that they cannot comment on an agreement whose contents they ignore. This afternoon meetings between ERC, JxCat and CUP are scheduled and tomorrow the secretary general of JxCat, Jordi Sànchez, will hold a conference to explain the state of the negotiations. Last week the talks between coalition partners got stuck over the coordinating body that has to lead the Independence bid, because Junts wants it to be the Consell per la República and Esquerra a new entity.

The formation of the new Government

In the article, Aragonès pledges to create a Government that "unequivocally" reinforces the vocation "of public service" and acting with "maximum transparency", "avoiding mere technocratic management and populist emptiness". "To promote a Government of transformation that returns the demand to politics, that keeps its feet on the ground assuming ambitious long-term commitments that need to be evaluated periodically", affirms the current vice-president of the Catalan Government.

In accordance with the pre-agreement, Aragonés believes it is necessary to face "the housing emergency", "to reinforce the primary attention of the health system", "to rethink the model of managing public order" and to create the "conditions" to confront the "next democratic onslaught against the State". "These are issues that we share and that we have been able to prioritise based on mutual trust to provide the Government of the Generalitat with the stability that the difficulties of the moment require"

Finally, Esquerra's presidential candidate asks "not to waste any more time" or "prolong an interim" government that "weakens" the Generalitat's capacity for action. In fact, despite the fact that the Junts' votes are not yet guaranteed, he hopes to be elected in the investiture debate on Friday: "The situation the country is going through requires us to get going this Friday, taking advantage of the opportunity we have to build a government with renewed energy".