ERC warns Illa and Sánchez that without the special funding, it will not even negotiate the budget.

BarcelonaIn Tuesday's control session, The budgets did not plan at any time on the debate, but this Wednesday there was a strong warning from the ERC to the president of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa, but also to the Spanish president, Pedro Sánchez. The day after the conference in which Oriol Junqueras announced his candidacy for the presidency of the country., the Republicans have reaffirmed the warning they have been issuing in recent months: without progress on specific financing, there will be no budget, neither in Catalonia nor in the State. One of the steps that Esquerra demands to advance the fulfillment of this agreement is for the Socialists to validate the bill presented by ERC in Congress, which must legally authorize the Catalan Tax Agency (ATC) to collect personal income tax. A request about which the Minister of Finance and candidate for the Andalusian presidency, María Jesús Montero, has publicly expressed reluctance.

In parallel with this regulation, the Government has taken steps to modernize and streamline the operation of the ATC, an example of which is the decree that was validated this Wednesday in Parliament at the proposal of the Government—it has received the support of the PSC, ERC, Comuns, and the CUP, while Junts has abstained. Despite endorsing the decree, the Republicans issued criticism and a warning. ERC MP Albert Salvadó lamented that the decree "is late and short." "Until the issue of revenue collection and the new financing model are resolved, we will not negotiate new budgets, neither here nor with the Spanish government," he reaffirmed. Therefore, he urged them to approve the bill registered in Congress "to enable the Generalitat to collect personal income tax" in full, approximately €30 billion, and to specify the new financing model. Because if the Socialists "do not fulfill their commitments, they will have great difficulty governing," Salvadó warned.

Easing tensions

On the other hand, the Minister of Economy and Finance, Alícia Romero, thanked Comuns and ERC for their joint work, advocating for the agency's progressive growth with the necessary internal changes. "We want the agency to manage not only its own and assigned taxes, but also those that are delegated, such as personal income tax," she said, although she emphasized that it must be progressive in order to remain "effective," including in the fight against fraud.

A defense of transformations to place the agency "at the service of the country's will to be able to expand the Catalan Treasury," also "parallel to the new funding," which she expects "soon." Precisely in the midst of the announced "qualitative leap," she commented that the call for fifty scholarships to train to become a Catalan tax agent or manager with a monthly salary has had 34 applications since Friday.

Comuns spokesperson David Cid has made a fierce defense of the "new system of singular financing" and "everything that is being proposed" regarding the expansion of the ATC (Transportation and Transport Services). This growth has also been validated by the CUP as any "advance in sovereignty," in the words of MP Laure Vega. This has nothing to do with the outright opposition to the "concessions" to the independence movement proposed by the PP and Vox. The Popular Party is even considering taking the decree to the Constitutional Court.

In parallel, Junts MP and vice president of the party, Antoni Castellà, has called the decree a "joke" because the singular financing "is a joke" and "has no specifics." In an automotive analogy, he lamented that the decree increases "power, capacity, and tires" but not "gasoline"—that is, financing. Furthermore, "They prolong the agony of a government that has no budget or financing." The Catalan Alliance has criticized Spain's "colonial plunder."

The study commission on fascism has been approved.

This Wednesday's plenary session also debated the creation of a study commission on fascism, racism, and hate speech, which was approved with votes in favor from all parties except the PP, Vox, and Aliança Catalana, who voted against.

The president of the PSC group, Elena Díaz, defended "the ethical and democratic obligation to act" in the face of the rise in hate speech and called for the far right not to be normalized. Therefore, ERC MP Tània Verge commented that "institutions cannot be neutral in the face of hate," and emphasized that the commission, beyond hate speech, must also address "anti-feminism, LGBTI-phobia, and racism." The members of the council also broadened their focus to include "supremacism" in Spain, according to MP Francisco de Dalmases, and recalled that the PSC sided with the far right during the Process. For his part, Andrés García Berrio from Comuns (Communists) has called for an addressing of institutional racism and has reminded everyone that "not everything is a hate crime," a warning also made by CUP MP Xavier Pellicer, who pointed out that "hate crimes cannot be applied to activists."

Those who have expressed furious rejection have been the PP (People's Party) and the far-right Vox and Catalan Alliance. The spokesperson for the Popular Party, Juan Fernández, has said that "fascism is past" because "no country" declares itself fascist, while there are "communist" ones. Criticizing the commission's "selective" approach, he has called for an investigation into the alleged hate speech of the independence movement. Likewise, Vox MP Júlia Calvet described the fight against hate speech as a "crime against thought" and even lamented the sanction imposed on Ignacio Garriga for saying that "we must choose between Islamic law or national laws." In the same vein, Aliança leader Silvia Orriols accused all parties in favor of the study commission of "mimicking fascism." She especially accused Junts of being "inseparable from the far left" due to "the fear of losing seats."