ERC presents a comprehensive amendment to the Government's budget.

BarcelonaEsquerra Republicana will present a comprehensive amendment to the Catalan government's budget this Tuesday. This was announced by the party's general secretary, Elisenda Alamany, in an interview on Catalunya Ràdio. The Republicans explained last week that if talks with the government continued without progress, They would flatly reject the accounts.Oriol Junqueras' party maintains that, without a gesture from the Spanish government demonstrating their willingness to cede control over personal income tax collection to Catalonia, they will not negotiate Salvador Illa's budget. For now, Alamany has stated that there are no "guarantees" to open talks on the figures presented by the Catalan government last week. If such a gesture is made, she added, ERC would be prepared to withdraw its amendment. "I believe this is the coherent mechanism in light of our position. Esquerra Republicana will not endorse the Catalan government's resignation to the PSOE," warned the ERC's second-in-command. Talks between the Republicans and the Catalan government remain open. In fact, the two sides met again this Monday, according to sources familiar with the matter consulted by ARA, but the meeting did not resolve the impasse over personal income tax. Dialogue between Esquerra and the Spanish government also continues.

Oriol Junqueras's team had set the Fiscal and Financial Policy Council (CPFF) meeting scheduled for mid-March as a key date for the state executive to demonstrate its commitment to the IRPF (Personal Income Tax).At this point, however, this meeting with all the regional finance ministers not only has no date, but is up in the air. "We are not in a scenario where there will be a Fiscal and Financial Policy Council; we have no date. We also don't know, if there were to be one, what the [Finance] Minister would bring and what she would explain," acknowledged the ERC spokesperson in the Catalan Parliament, Ester Capella, at a press conference. The plan envisioned weeks ago was for this meeting It will be held in March and the Ministry of Finance will present the necessary legislative modifications. to implement the new financing model that Minister María Jesús Montero announced in January. This is the preliminary step before it can begin its passage through Congress. The Republicans, however, maintain that the Catalan government should pressure the PSOE (Spanish Socialist Workers' Party) and not ERC (Republican Left of Catalonia): "It's not up to us to go where the PSC (Socialist Party of Catalonia) doesn't want to go with its colleagues in the central government," Alamany argued.

Therefore, the figures presented by the Catalan government last week are not, at this point, guaranteed to be approved. Despite the Republicans' refusal to negotiate the budget, Salvador Illa decided to maintain the initial plan and approve the budget to begin its passage through the Catalan Parliament. "When you try to process a budget without securing the necessary support, things don't end well. It's the PSC that has put the pressure on itself," Alamany warned. The real test will come on March 20th, when the full debate is scheduled. This is when the amendments to the entire budget will be debated – in addition to ERC, Junts, the PP, Vox, and Aliança Catalana have also submitted or will submit them – and if the Catalan government arrives without an agreement with the Republicans, the budget will be worthless.