Illa's first budgets make their way through Parliament amid opposition darts

BarcelonaThe agreement that the Government presented two weeks ago with ERC and Comuns for the budgets will overcome its first hurdle in Parliament this Thursday. The plenary session of the Catalan chamber is holding the general debate on the accounts, where the amendments to the whole presented by all the opposition groups must be addressed: Junts, CUP, Aliança, PP and Vox. The socialists, however, will leverage the pact reached with the republicans and Jéssica Albiach's group to reject the four amendments and allow the accounts to get underway in Parliament. It is foreseen that, if no group takes the bill to the Council of Statutory Guarantees, the budgets will see the light of day at the beginning of July.

In fact, the Minister of Economy, Alícia Romero, thanked, right at the beginning of her speech, "the demanding nature" and also "the generosity" of ERC and Comuns, and asked the opposition to agree to approve them: "We must act responsibly, thinking more about the country than about the trench." The minister, in this regard, asked the opposition not to "block" the institutions and presented the agreement on the accounts as "useful politics": "Not the one that shouts the loudest, but the one that resolves best." "The country does not need blockages, but tools, and the main tool is the budget. It allows us to move from uncertainty to stability," Romero defended.

Criticism from Junts

The main opposition group, Junts, has not been convinced, and has once again attacked the budgets, but also the management of the socialist executive, to whom they have once again accused of "anesthetizing" Catalonia. "They will have budgets and oxygen to exhaust the legislature, but Catalans will have the same problems," stated the leader of the Junts group in Parliament, Mònica Sales. The deputy also took advantage of the debate to delegitimize the Government following police reports linking the PSC with the allegedly corrupt Leire case. "President, your party is the PSC, but also the PSOE. You are more PSOE than the headquarters in Ferraz. If the PSOE is not free of corruption, neither is the PSC," she snapped.

But the barbs were not only aimed at the Government, but also at its partners, ERC and Comuns. Thus, the Junts leader presented the accounts as "the sum of three failures: the incompetence of the PSC, the renunciations of ERC, and the extremism of the Comuns." In fact, she particularly taunted the Republicans, accusing them of wanting more sovereignty to "administer the socialist agency." "By some magic they changed the red line of personal income tax for the orbital line [...]. They have gone from red lines to red carpets at the PSC," she stated.

The leader of the Catalan PP, Alejandro Fernández, for his part, rejected the accounts, calling them a "massive deception." He reproached the Government for withdrawing the project only "to not interfere in the Andalusian elections" only to re-present it now "identically and without changes." Fernández defined the pact as a "mutual aid society" and poked at ERC's role: "He claims to be an independentist, but his leader, Rufián, wants to preside over Spain." His speech focused on denouncing "the great socialist feeding trough," criticizing the creation of 44 new organizations in the last two years. Thus, he lamented that while key infrastructures such as the airport or the fourth belt are postponed, the country leads in insecurity and fiscal pressure. "Result: a strong PSC and a decadent Catalonia," he stated.

Vox, for its part, has also defended its amendment in its entirety and the deputy Javier Ramírez has railed against the taxation maintained by the Government, but also for policies to protect Catalan or those that "promote immigration". "These budgets are not Illa's or Puigdemont's, but Sánchez's and Junqueras's," he concluded. During his speech, Ramírez took the opportunity to once again label the pro-independence deputies as "coup plotters" and, in particular, ERC. A statement that led the president of the Parliament, Josep Rull, to call his attention: "I do so from the authority of being a supposed coup plotter".

Illa's first budgets

These will be Salvador Illa's first budgets as president. Accounts that reach almost the midpoint of the legislature and could be the only ones the Government approves: next year there are municipal elections and, if not brought forward, also general elections, a scenario not very conducive to negotiating accounts; and 2028 is already the last year of Salvador Illa's term. That is why the executive had set its sights on these budgets moving forward. It even had to swallow the toad of withdrawing the first bill it presented in February after negotiations with ERC derailed due to the State's refusal to transfer the collection of IRPF, the red line that the Republicans had set to start talking about the accounts.

The budgets approved by the executive council two weeks ago reach almost 50,000 million euros, specifically 49,162 million, 22% more than in 2023 —about 9,126 million euros—, the last ones approved by Pere Aragonès' Government. Compared to the Generalitat's spending last year, under a budget extension, the increase is 10.3%. For the opposition, however, the budgets presented by the Government are not sufficient. For example, for Junts, the main opposition group, the accounts will not reverse the educational or health crisis, said the group's leader in Parliament, Mònica Sales, a few days ago, and she also criticized that ERC has "subordinated" itself to the socialists and that the budgets bear the stamp of the "extremism" of the Comuns.

The financing model

Romero has taken advantage of the debate to pressure Junts and also the PP to agree to approve the new financing model that the socialists agreed with ERC. "Despite legitimate political disagreements, I hope they don't put obstacles in the way," he stated. In fact, he asked not to "accuse" those who made the proposal and, in this regard, recalled that the two previous proposals before 2014 also came from Catalonia, both from CiU and the tripartite government. The minister, in this regard, assured that with this new model, next year Catalonia would have almost 5,000 million euros to incorporate into the budget. "We need resources, help us to get this new financing model approved," she concluded.

It also did not convince Junts. Mònica Sales reiterated her commitment to economic concert. "Catalonia needs more than 20,000 million euros, which are, surprise, what go to Madrid every year," she lamented. The Junts leader again presented the fiscal deficit as Catalonia's main problem and accused the PSC of not demanding this money "so as not to bother Pedro Sánchez and the PSOE".