ERC rejects Isla's gesture and maintains its veto on the budget.

BarcelonaThe president of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa, He made a gesture to ERC to try to pave the way for the budget. And, in fact, everything was on track for the Republicans to sit down and negotiate the budget in the coming days. However, Oriol Junqueras's party believes that Isla's commitment is insufficient and that the "necessary conditions" for the Spanish government to transfer the revenue from personal income tax (IRPF) are not met. sine qua non that the party had set as a condition for negotiating the budget.

This is the message that Oriol Junqueras conveyed this morning to the executive committee and, subsequently, to the national council. "Today, the objective conditions for moving forward with the budget negotiations are not met," argued the leader of the Republicans, who nevertheless expressed openness to agreeing to supplementary credits. In other words, for the Republicans, Isla's commitment is not enough; they also want a commitment from the Spanish government. "The PSOE continues to offer no guarantees regarding the management and collection of personal income tax (IRPF), and we want to approve the budget, but the budget is not the only important thing, and the IRPF is crucial because Catalonia deserves all the resources," Junqueras warned.

Junqueras thanked President Illa for his statement, but emphasized that the PSOE had already committed a year and a half ago to cede control of the IRPF. "Their statement is valuable, but it's not enough. Statements must be accompanied by actions, and it's up to the PSC to convince the PSOE that it must fulfill its commitments. Unfortunately, that hasn't happened yet, and we have no guarantee that it will," he emphasized. "Given the current political climate, the PSC's lack of ambition and influence, and the electoral cycle the PSOE is experiencing, it's a complex objective today," Republican sources lamented. The Republicans recall that, for ERC, personal income tax revenue is a "structural, not symbolic, issue" that they agreed upon with the Socialists for Salvador Illa's investiture. At that time, the PSOE's federal committee also endorsed this issue, but for months now, María Jesús Montero's Ministry of Finance has refused to resolve the impasse. In fact, sources within this ministry reiterate that their commitment is to implement what was signed by the Government and the State at the last bilateral meeting: a networked management of Personal Income Tax (IRPF) between the national tax authorities and those of the autonomous communities.

"We were very close to reaching an agreement on the IRPF and the budget, but it wasn't possible," lamented the president of ERC. This Friday, Oriol Junqueras met with the Spanish president, Pedro Sánchez, to try to secure a commitment from the Spanish executive branch regarding the IRPF, which ultimately failed. In fact, after the meeting, ERC noted that the Spanish government had not made any progress on this issue. Republican sources blame the PSC for not having pressured the PSOE enough to resolve this impasse. Faced with this situation, Esquerra decided to change its position and not sit down to negotiate the budget, a decision it communicated to the PSC on Friday night.

Keeps the hand extended

"It's not a punishment or a tantrum. We don't force anyone to sign agreements, but once signed, they must be honored," ERC representatives stated. Oriol Junqueras' party, however, maintains that it will not walk away from the budget negotiation table: "We're not getting angry, we're not overreacting, we're not leaving any table." In other words, after this initial rejection, Esquerra is keeping its hand extended to the Catalan government.

Junqueras himself said so during the national council meeting. "We will not leave the negotiating table and we will continue negotiating many other things, such as the investment consortium." In fact, this body was practically agreed upon between ERC and the PSOE and was expected to be one of the elements that would break the deadlock in negotiations, although the Republicans maintained their demand regarding the Personal Income Tax (IRPF). It is precisely this consortium that Junts' general secretary, Jordi Turull, criticized this Saturday. During his public address to the media at the national council meeting in Vilanova i la Geltrú, Turull demanded that the State must pay "directly" everything it owes to Catalonia, without creating "more agencies or joint ventures."

The Minister of the Presidency, Albert Dalmau, has declined to comment on the No Dalmau, from ERC, spoke about negotiating the Catalan government's budget and expressed his conviction that they would find "a way to fulfill the agreements," after reiterating that ERC is "essential" to make it possible. Dalmau reaffirmed the "commitment" of the President of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa, to income tax revenue and prescribed "work, effort, and discretion." "It will eventually happen, and we will work to make it so; we will not walk away from the table," he stated in an interview on Catalunya Ràdio. The government spokesperson and Minister of Territory, Sílvia Paneque, echoed this sentiment, assuring that the Salvador Illa administration's commitment to the investiture agreements with ERC is "absolute." In this regard, she defended the intention to fulfill aspects such as income tax revenue, which the Republicans do not currently see as guaranteed: "We will work as hard as necessary and give it our all," she said. The Catalan government had planned to expedite the budget process with the gesture it made towards ERC this Friday and intended to approve the accounts in the executive council next week to have them approved by the end of March. However, with ERC's stance, this plan has been thrown into disarray, and it will be very difficult for the Catalan executive to meet that objective. Dalmau has not specified whether the accounts will be approved in the executive council on Tuesday, despite the fact that the agreement with the Republicans is not contingent on it.