Together they will present a comprehensive amendment to the agreed financing and demand the concert

BarcelonaEconomic agreement or economic arrangement. This is Junts' position on the regional financing pact between ERC and the Spanish government, which has provoked the outright rejection of Carles Puigdemont's party. Despite pressure from the Republicans, Socialists, Comuns, and both the Catalan and Spanish governments, Junts has decided to present a comprehensive amendment to the agreed proposal when it reaches Congress, and will incorporate an alternative text to "transition towards an economic agreement." This was announced this morning by the Junts leader in the lower house of parliament, Miriam Nogueras, and confirmed at midday in a press conference by the party's vice president and key figure in financing matters, Antoni Castellà. This is the path the party will take, faced with the dilemma of either validating an improved system with an additional 4.7 billion euros for Catalonia—with several generalizable specificities that have been incorporated—or losing the promised resources and continuing with the system that expired in 2014. Galician nationalism has also expressed its rejection of the pact, calling it "not even a starting point," while the Valencian nationalists of Compromís have supported it.

The proposed financing model presented by the Minister of Finance, María Jesús Montero, has not been well received by the members of the Catalan Parliament: "The fine print confirms that Catalonia remains under the regime of..." Coffee for everyone"There is no special treatment for Catalonia, the text does not guarantee ordinality, and there will not be a single euro more to reduce the fiscal deficit," Castellà said at a press conference. The formula proposed by the party is a reverse amendment that would make it "compatible" to "take the LOFCA (Organic Law on the Financing of Autonomous Communities) and establish [the new law] in an additional section." Thus, Junts has appealed to ERC (Republican Left of Catalonia) to "seize this historic moment" and close ranks in the Spanish lower house to secure the economic agreement they promised to the party's members: "Why are we giving up the economic agreement? Why are we giving up 22 billion euros? Why, now that we have the political key, are we giving this up?" Castellà asked, releasing the pressure that Oriol Junqueras's party has placed on Puigdemont's. This would mean reversing everything the Republicans have agreed to in the pact and defended as a major step forward.

Castellà pointed out that the predictions made this Thursday have come true and that, with the agreement signed by ERC, "there is no special funding for Catalonia," but rather "only an update of the current autonomous model" which was last approved in 2009, and that the increase in resources for the Principality comes "basically from the current" funds in the treasury, under the same model we have until now. Therefore, he concluded that it "perpetuates the fiscal deficit" of 22 billion euros, according to the Generalitat's latest calculation. Furthermore, he criticized the fact that Catalonia remains under the LOFCA (Organic Law on the Financing of Autonomous Communities), in the common regime, and as "just another autonomous community," while the money is distributed "with the same philosophy as before," following the criteria of the adjusted populationOne element they argue perpetuates the fiscal deficit is that it "corrects" the actual population by incorporating a string of parameters into the calculation that distort per capita funding. For this reason, they also criticized the fact that ordinality is not included in the model itself, but rather in this year's calculation for Catalonia, which takes into account the adjusted population. This is because, in terms of actual population, Catalonia is the third largest contributor and the ninth largest recipient, not the third. In this regard, they lamented the failure to incorporate the cost of living variable in Catalonia, which is "much higher" than the national average, and the fact that the model was developed without the publication of the fiscal balances—one of the elements of the agreement between the PSOE and Junts that has not been fulfilled—which would reveal the resources Catalonia allocates to cover expenses. Furthermore, Junts has also criticized the omission of "regulatory capacity" and the claim that the new model is "more equitable." According to Castellano, "solidarity should be a decision for the Catalan government," mirroring the Basque model of payments to the central government for services rendered. This is a far cry from the proposed model. Amid this debate, some more pragmatic voices within the Junts municipal sphere are calling for the current proposal to be approved, arguing that failing to do so would be "difficult to explain," as Carles Bosch, the Junts regional president in Maresme, told ACN. While Bosch has prioritized not "giving up" the additional 4.7 billion euros, Castellà responded to this internal criticism without commenting on it: "I respect all the opinions of Junts members," he concluded.