Albert Dalmau: "With ERC we agree on the idea that we cannot condemn the country to blockage"

Albert Dalmau (Barcelona, 1990) visits l'ARA after a week in which, despite everything, the Government has saved a match ball and has gained time to approve the budgets.The government yesterday made a gesture quite unprecedented in Catalan political history, which is the withdrawal of the budgets. Is it a tactical withdrawal?

— I believe it can be stated that the country needs budgets. The country must look forward, it cannot get stuck, blocked, looking back, and to do this, institutions must function, and to function, we need budgets.

The question is: are we closer today to Catalonia having a budget than three days ago?

— I think so, because there is an agreement with progressive forces, with Comuns and also with Esquerra, that the country needs budgets. Specifically with ERC, what we have agreed is to give ourselves more time for the budgets to become a reality before the summer of 2026.

You have conceded on something very clear, which is the withdrawal, but Esquerra has also conceded, right?

— Esquerra and the Government share the need for the country to move forward, and this requires developing the investiture commitments regarding financing and tax management. And in this regard, the explicit commitment from the President of the Generalitat is to continue working to materialize them. But materializing such complex commitments requires time. We have agreed that the country needs budgets and we cannot condemn Catalonia to a standstill.

Esquerra was asking for a gesture from the Spanish government to be able to start budget negotiations. Now it seems that they already accept negotiating pending a proposal that you have to make them.

— What I can affirm is that we are approaching it imminently and next week we will begin the meetings to set the country's priorities. It is a negotiation that, as always, requires discretion, but the objective is shared. In the end, investiture agreements are based on issues related to gaining sovereignty for the country and strengthening public services to confront the far-right.

Forgive me for saying so, but I don't think it seems very difficult to reach an agreement, because there have been other budgetary agreements between the PSC and Esquerra...

— We are demanding the political culture of agreement. In our country, the policy of disagreement had settled in. To agree among ourselves, among Catalans, and also to agree with the government of Spain. This is how we have been able to increase the number of Mossos d'Esquadra staff, add 209 new courts this legislature, increase resources in the financing model or the transfer of Rodalies. If we institutional political actors do not show that the country works, we will give space to the far right.

How to explain the resistance from the Spanish government to advance on the IRPF issue? Is it because of the electoral calendar facing the PSOE?

— Look, for too long we have promised things that have been impossible and then have not happened, and the recent history of Catalonia is full of examples. Therefore, it is obvious that renewing the financing system to put 4,700 million euros more on the table after thirteen years of the expired model could not happen overnight. On the issue of tax management, the Government's commitment is there, but today the Catalan Tax Agency is not at the level required to carry out this task. The ATC, so that people get an idea, had 28 tax inspectors. We have just incorporated 25 more to double them. But they are not enough to manage 35,000 million of the IRPF of the citizens of Catalonia.

Esquerra accuses them of not having national ambition and not being fully committed to the idea of their own treasury. Are they?

— It's not that I am, the Government is committed to it. We believe that we must be able to move forward in having more financial autonomy and, therefore, also be able to move forward in tax management. There is a commitment included in the investiture agreements and in the bilateral commission that Catalonia can collect 100% of taxes. Doing so will require progressive work of legislative modifications at the state level and work that is not done in Catalonia.

With which calendar?

— We have set the target of 2028 to be able to advance in some of these taxes. We have made progress in the agreement for the registration tax, which should help us to start preparing the tax agency and see what our capabilities are, but in the last ten years certain things were also wanted to be done and the agency was not prepared. Now our goal is to make this possible and the government's commitment is there, it is absolute. And the maximum ambition must be reflected in putting the country in motion, in doing the public services that have not been done, the infrastructures that have not been done for a country that has increased its population and has gone from 6 million to 8 million.

This growth seems to have caught us all off guard, doesn't it?

— It has been irresponsible that the country has gone from 6 million to 8 million and neither the trains nor the roads have been built, nor has money been invested in hospitals or schools to make it possible. I know that this has to do not only with where energies are placed, nor do I want to trivialize because in those years there was a very important economic crisis, but at the same time the financing system was not resolved. And it also has to do with the great country consensuses. To build roads, we have to decide to build them and we shouldn't be afraid to build them. And in Catalonia, a culture of saying no to everything has also been installed, which has also kept everything blocked. How can it be that in a region as important as Girona, we have the main health, educational, and research project, the new Trueta Hospital, stalled? Or the case of Joan XXIII in Tarragona or the new campus of Clínic. I believe it has been irresponsible –certainly with a cumulus of many issues related to the lack of resources, the lack of consensus, but also where energies are placed– that the country has gone from 6 million to 8 million without the necessary public services and infrastructures.

You, who have been in the machinery of the Generalitat for almost two years now, do you sometimes miss any more levers of self-government to do what you would like?

— Sometimes I miss the political culture of the City Council and the Municipalities. Why? Because the municipal world in Catalonia is a world that is very focused on the day-to-day affairs of the country. Sometimes in Parliament we speak very abstractly and very little about real issues. And also because there is a political culture in the municipal world of reaching agreements and moving forward the cities, the small towns of Catalonia, putting differences aside. I see mayors in Catalonia who have an absolute majority and, nevertheless, they agree on the budgets. They could not do so, but they decide to agree on the budgets. I think we should learn a lot from the municipal world. And one thing, obviously, that Catalonia lacks is resources. I came from an organization that was the Barcelona City Council, which had many resources, and the Generalitat de Catalunya does not have them. That is why it is important to have put 4,700 million on the table.

And he trusts that this financing agreement, which has cost so much...

— It has cost a lot. It has cost a lot.

...can it be approved, finally? Because it depends on Junts...

— Home, I trust that Junts will have the responsibility not to throw away 4.7 billion euros for the country's health, education, and infrastructure. It would send a bad message to Catalan society if an agreement that is positive for Catalonia were to founder.

Tell me the truth, did you expect the Rodalies situation to be as disastrous as it has turned out to be?

— No. No. The truth...

And at what point does he become aware of it?

— Let's see, we are all aware that the situation of Rodalies had been getting worse in recent years. I also have to tell you that we had 3 or 4 years in which a volume of investments was being made that had not been seen in the last decade, and it had gone from 100 million to 440 million annually, and this was already generating enough annoyance. And then, all of a sudden, in January, the system went into crisis. And from here we decide to take the bull by the horns. And these days more is being invested in maintenance than in the last six years. The Garraf tunnels, which had been in poor condition for... five, ten years? Well, we have decided to close them, stop traffic and start the works. I believe that this government, if it can explain anything as a legacy when this legislature ends, I hope it will have been to have set a turning point for Rodalies in the country and to have fixed this issue once and for all.

Tell me something, don't you think Spain was a bit mistaken in its investment priorities by betting so heavily on the high-speed train and neglecting the commuter rail?

— Clearly the priorities were confused and one thing was to bet on the most relevant high-speed corridors, such as the Barcelona-Madrid, and the other not to invest enough in the Commuter Rail.

Before, he told me he was surprised by the situation with Rodalies. Was he expecting the success of the teachers' mobilizations? And this rejection of the agreement you reached with UGT and CCOO?

— I was expecting very massive teacher demonstrations because there is a lot of discontent in the classrooms. This discontent did not start a year and a half ago, it has been accumulating for many years, during which the complexity in our centers has increased. There has been a demand to lower the ratios, classrooms have been filled with paperwork, and teachers' pay for some allowances had not been touched for more than 25 years. Obviously, I know, understand, and comprehend the discontent that exists in the country's classrooms. And our obligation in this regard has been to respond. We have put on the table an agreement of 2,000 million, which lowers the ratios to 20 students, which increases teachers' salaries by 30%...

However, this response has not entirely convinced a significant part of the collective.

— I am aware, and since I claim that the country cannot be blocked, we can all go out to demonstrate, but what do we do? Don't we agree?

But are there possibilities to increase this offer that has been made?

— The government has reached an agreement with CCOO and UGT, it is willing to listen to everyone, to talk to everyone, but the agreement is what we have on the table and we can talk about this agreement. It is a very relevant agreement. I also thank the unions that have decided to take a step forward in the face of the all-or-nothing dynamic. The alternative was to condemn the country to a blockade.

This offer that you make, if you now had these extra resources from the new funding, could it be expanded? Do you make this offer because there is no more money?

— We have made this offer because there are currently no more resources. If the new funding goes ahead and we are able to incorporate more resources from the new funding system, which means they are approved in the General Courts in Madrid and arrive from the year 2027, more things can be done.

What will the government do to alleviate the situation that the war in Iran may generate?

— Our objective is to present a package of subsidies for the most affected sectors, the primary and the industrial, and also to consider some fiscal issue linked to very specific sectors that are affected by the cost of energy prices. But let me tell you that I believe it is time to unmask the Catalan far-right of Vox and Aliança Catalana by explaining that their theses, what they defend, their allies, Trump and Netanyahu, are what are causing such significant disorder in the world in the form of chaos that leads to more immigration because people leave places where there is war, and that causes an increase in energy prices. Today, a farmer in our country will pay more for energy because of those who have started this war. It will cost a family a little more to make ends meet because of those who have started this war, who form an international movement whose representatives in Catalonia call themselves Aliança Catalana and Vox.