Montero-Junqueras clash: The Treasury rejects the ERC proposal for collecting personal income tax.

Barcelona / MadridEsquerra presented last week his bill for the Catalan Tax Agency to collect personal income tax, knowing that the PSOE did not support itA gesture intended to serve as a pressure measure to force the Spanish government to weigh in on this issue and take steps to implement the new one-off financing agreed upon for Salvador Illa's investiture. The move has not served to convince the PSOE to accept the law; rather, the Ministry of Finance does not share the idea of a "comprehensive transfer" of personal income tax in Catalonia and the rest of the autonomous communities. In this regard, the department headed by María Jesús Montero is preparing its own proposal to modify the financing model, as she has announced. The Newspaper and the ARA has confirmed. In response to this, the leader of the ERC (Republican Left) Party (ERC), Oriol Junqueras, has once again issued a warning to the Spanish executive: without the Republicans' endorsement of the bill, they will not negotiate the budget.

The Ministry of Finance, headed by Maria Jesús Montero, "is not in favor" of the Republicans' proposal, according to sources from this department, who add: "The Treasury is working on a financing model, with the idea that it is compatible with complying with the signed agreements and creating a model that can be extended to the rest of the autonomous communities." That is, everything agreed for Catalonia can be assumed by the rest of the autonomous communities. Although the Republicans' bill already includes ceding personal income tax collection not only in Catalonia, but also in the rest of the autonomous communities that request it, ERC complained that Montero did not share this approach either. "It touches the very core of state revenue," Oriol Junqueras stated a few days ago. In fact, the Spanish government has also not embraced the principle of ordinality that was written into the investiture agreement.

"If they consider fundamental issues for our country unacceptable, issues that may be relevant to them, such as the budget, will also be unacceptable," he warned in an interview on TV3. In fact, the president of the Republicans already warned a few days ago that the approval of this law—which the Republicans have not yet registered and plan to do so this week—was one of the conditions his party was setting for sitting down to negotiate the accounts, although it was not the only one; they also demanded, for example, that the Spanish government provide the necessary resources. "There will be no budget negotiations until the financing model and revenue collection are satisfactorily resolved," Junqueras added: "First they must comply. When they have complied, there will be a negotiation."

The position of the Ministry of Finance leaves Salvador Illa's government in a difficult position. The president of the Generalitat has repeatedly stated that he will comply with the investiture agreement, but this issue does not depend exclusively on the Socialist leader. In this regard, Illa reiterated this Monday that Catalonia "does not want any privileges" with the new financing model, but rather a system adapted to its specific circumstances to "develop its potential," he said in a speech at the conference. Catalonia towards the future From Europa Press. One of the discrepancies that has been publicly revealed between the Catalan and Spanish Socialists is that the PSC maintains its defense of the principle of ordinality, while the PSOE (Spanish Socialist Workers' Party) does not accept it.