Junqueras warns Illa: "If the prisons haven't broken us, neither will any pressure."

BarcelonaSalvador Illa's government continues to pressure ERC to approve the budget before taking it to the Catalan Parliament, but the Republicans are holding firm. Negotiations are at a standstill, awaiting a move from the Spanish government that, so far, has not materialized. The Republicans insist that the PSOE must commit to passing the necessary reforms in Congress so that Catalonia can assume full control of the personal income tax (IRPF), and that without this commitment, they will not even discuss the budget. This was reiterated on Saturday by ERC president Oriol Junqueras during the party's 95th anniversary celebration, which drew 400 people to Barcelona's Estació del Nord train station. The leader of the Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC) took advantage of the historical review of the party's trajectory, which was presented before his parliamentary session and recalled that hundreds of members were murdered, imprisoned (like himself), or forced into exile, to emphasize that no adversity will break them. "There is no room for despair or losing faith. Any past moment was worse; the difficulties were far more significant than passing a budget, and we are accustomed to pressure. If prisons haven't broken us, neither will any pressure," Junqueras warned, in response to the Catalan government's push for his party's support for a budget that remains stalled. In this context, the leader of ERC reiterated, as he has since the beginning of negotiations, that his party wants to approve the budget, but will not do so without concessions in return. "We want budgets everywhere, even in the most remote areas, but we also want the revenue from the Personal Income Tax (IRPF), because it's important and we don't want to risk losing control of it," he insisted. "We know it's difficult because we don't have the support we'd like, and we ask Catalan society to help us because we have a lot at stake," he added. Regarding the pressure being exerted by some unions and employers' associations for ERC to join the budget agreement, Junqueras reiterated that his party's requests are solely for the common good. "We tell the social and economic stakeholders that we are fighting for them, that when we defend a sound funding model or tax collection, we do it to improve everyone's lives, to make this a more competitive country with decent wages; we do nothing that isn't for the good of all," he concluded. "Why should they leave us alone if we've always been there for them when they've needed us?" he asked.

Earlier, the Secretary General of the Republicans, Elisenda Alamany, said that "transversality is the best way to defend the country" and that they work to "improve people's daily lives." "Being there means not failing, not disappearing even when things get complicated, and this has always been the story of ERC for 95 years," she concluded.