Junqueras warns Illa: "If prisons have not surrendered us, neither will any pressure"

BarcelonaSalvador Illa's executive is not ceasing to pressure ERC for them to approve the budgets and bring them to Parliament, but the Republicans are not giving in. The negotiation is stalled, waiting for the Spanish government to make a move that, for now, is not coming. And the Republicans insist that the PSOE must commit to moving forward with the necessary reforms in Congress for Catalonia to assume the full management of IRPF and that, without this, they will not sit down to talk about the accounts.

This was ratified again this Saturday by the president of ERC, Oriol Junqueras, during the party's 95th anniversary celebration, which brought together 400 people at Estació del Nord in Barcelona. The highest leader of the Republicans took advantage of the historical review of the party's trajectory that took place before his speech, where it was recalled that hundreds of militants were murdered, imprisoned (like himself) or had to go into exile, to emphasize that no hardship will make them bend.

"There is no room for despair or for losing faith, any past moment was worse, the difficulties were much more relevant than approving budgets and we are used to pressure and if prisons have not surrendered us, neither will any pressure," warned Junqueras, in the face of the Government's offensive for them to support accounts that remain stuck.

In this scenario, the leader of Esquerra has reiterated, as he has done from the beginning, that his party wants to approve the budgets, but that they will not validate them if there are no counter-prestations. "We want budgets everywhere, including in Contximbamba, but we also want the collection of IPRF, because it is important and we do not want to run the risk of it escaping our hands," he insisted. "We know it's difficult because they don't accompany us as we would like and we ask Catalan society to help us because we have a lot at stake," he added.

Given the pressure being exerted by some unions or employers for ERC to join the agreement on the accounts, Junqueras reminded them that his party's requests only seek the common good. "To social and economic agents we say that we are fighting for them, that when we defend a good financing model or the collection of taxes, we do it to improve the lives of all people, to make this a more competitive country, with decent wages, we do nothing that is not for the good of all," he concluded. "Why should they leave us alone if whenever they have needed us we have been by their side?" he asked.

Previously, the general secretary of the Republicans, Elisenda Alamany, said that "transversality is the best way to defend the country" and that they work to "improve people's day-to-day lives". "Being there means not failing, not disappearing even when things get complicated and this has always been the history of ERC for 95 years," she stated.