PSC and ERC seek ways to avoid Friday's clash over the budgets

BarcelonaThe Government's budgets continue to hang by a thread. If the PSC and ERC do not find the way out before Friday, the accounts that Salvador Illa's executive approved two weeks ago will fall. Republicans and socialists maintain open dialogue to try to avoid a clash before Friday, and this Tuesday they will hold more meetings. On the table are two scenarios: that the Government withdraws the budgets or that ERC withdraws its overall amendment. Both options are designed to prevent the accounts from falling and to buy time to try to redirect the negotiation. At the moment, however, the Government maintains that it is not willing to withdraw the budget bill. "We are not there at this time," assured the Minister of Economy, Alícia Romero, in an interview with RTVE.

However, according to what La Vanguardia has reported, the Government would have put the withdrawal of the accounts on the table for ERC, although Romero insisted that the executive's objective is for ERC to withdraw its overall amendment and for the accounts to pass Friday's debate to continue negotiating until April 24, when the final debate is scheduled. According to sources consulted, these are the two scenarios that socialists and republicans have discussed in the meetings they have held in recent hours, the last one this very Monday. For Esquerra, withdrawing the accounts is the only option the Government has to continue negotiating the budgets. This was stated a few weeks ago by the general secretary of ERC, Elisenda Alamany, when she urged the Government to withdraw the budgets and re-present them in April. "Perhaps there will be no budgets in April, but if Illa keeps his word, we can have them in June. Let them re-present them if they expire in April," she said in an interview with RTVE.

In fact, Esquerra has repeatedly criticized Salvador Illa for deciding to approve the budgets in the executive council without having secured ERC's support. They consider it a "disaster" for which they say they do not feel "responsible." Thus, they put the ball in the executive's court when it comes to deciding the future of the accounts. On the other hand, the executive asks ERC to withdraw the overall amendment to continue negotiating. "We are for ERC to withdraw its overall amendment. We have time until April 24 and also 5 or 6 weeks to negotiate," added Romero. ERC, however, does not consider this scenario without an agreement on personal income tax and maintains that, if the Government does not withdraw the accounts, the law will fall this Friday because the republican deputies will vote for their amendment.

The stumbling block of personal income tax

The republicans maintain that without a gesture from the Spanish government showing its commitment to personal income tax, they will not negotiate the budgets. One of the moves requested by Oriol Junqueras' party was that in the next Council of Fiscal and Financial Policy (CPFF), the Minister of Finance, María Jesús Montero, would commit to including the transfer of personal income tax collection in the legislative modifications on the new regional financing model. This meeting, however, does not yet have a date, but this Tuesday Romero placed it between the end of March and the beginning of April. However, the head of Economy also added that she "does not see it necessary" for the Spanish government to make public a guarantee on personal income tax because the commitment is already included in the document signed by the two executives, the Catalan and the state, in the bilateral commission in July last year. "What more do we need than an official document?" Romero asked.