For better growth, we must invest in batteries to store green energy or attract talent, but the key to the future is fairer financing. There is agreement between the Minister of Economy, Alícia Romero, and three of her predecessors from different political families, who are clear that there are aspects on which there can be broad consensus.

Former Junts Economy Minister Jaume Giró has admitted that Aliança Catalana offered him the candidacy for Barcelona in the upcoming municipal elections, which he declined. He revealed this in an interview on RTVE: "Since I stepped aside on September 4th, I've had meetings with many people who have offered me all sorts of things, from creating a new party to forming a citizens' platform. That also happened, and I listen to everyone, and I politely declined the proposal." Giró explained that the offer didn't come directly from Aliança's leader, Silvia Orriols, but from someone within the party leadership, without specifying who.

Together has knocked down this week the reduction of working hours, heeding the demands of Catalan business organizations—Foment, Pimec, Cecot, and Femcat, as well as the president of the Círculo de Economía. Furthermore, a week ago, the former Minister of Economy Jaume Giró broke with Junts Amid criticism of the party's leadership. The former general director of the La Caixa Foundation, a pragmatist, had disagreements, especially since the fragility of the coalition government with ERC, and when he folded, he attacked a "tactical" policy that prevented "collaboration between the main forces," including Salvador Illa's government. Although agreements between the Socialists and regional government officials are also a desire of a segment of the business community, as requested by Círculo at its conference this year, and Foment, these agreements are far from materializing. What is Junts' relationship with the business community? What has Giró's departure meant?

When Artur Mas achieved the necessary majority in Parliament to become president, a leitmotif became fashionable, spread by the Convergent world, according to which this new government—after the two tripartite governments, riddled with facets and scandals—would be the "government of the best." With this, Mas and his followers intended to emphasize, I believe, that, unlike in recent years, what would prevail when composing the executive would be the abilities and merits of those who formed part of it. From the first to the last. There would be no room for mediocre people chosen solely for being part of the party. Needless to say, this announcement of a "government of the best" was the object of ridicule, criticism, and contempt from the opposition. The truth is, however, that Mas took seriously his duty to choose, within his means, the best-prepared candidates for his government, which, unfortunately for the president, was immediately confronted with the economic collapse produced by the Great Depression, which, having begun in 2008, would last for many years.

Early morning news in Catalan politics: Jaume Giró has resigned from his seat as a deputy and from his position on the national executive committee of Junts. This is the statement issued tonight, following a leak.

Former Minister of Economy and Finance Jaume Giró leaves Junts due to disagreements with "the party's current orientations." Giró has announced that he will resign "in the next few hours" from both his position on the party's national executive committee and his position as a member of the Catalan Parliament.

The time to move forward with the agreement on financing that will allow Catalonia to collect all its taxes is approaching. It was an essential element for the investiture of President Salvador Illa, but the political situation, with the corruption scandal affecting the PSOE, is complicating matters. And although work to implement the model was at an advanced stage, the June 30th deadline is moving further away, several sources consulted admit. The challenge now is, if the legislature holds out, to present the image that work on the new financing model continues. The time has come, but the clock has stopped.

The Catalan government estimates that Catalonia's fiscal deficit in 2019 was €20.2bn, the equivalent of 8.5% of Catalan gross domestic product (GDP), according to calculations by the Catalan Department of Economy and Finance. The data shows a deepening of the Catalan fiscal deficit compared to the last published figures, from 2016, when the deficit was €17bn and was equivalent to 8% of GDP.

Catalonia was the second region that contributed the most to the regional financing system in 2020, but, on the other hand, it was only the tenth in income received, according to data published by the Generalitat's Department of Economy this Thursday. This repeats the usual pattern of recent years in terms of the distribution of resources through the regional funding model.

The Spanish Ministry of Finance's proposal for the "adjusted population" which will rule the regional financing model got a frosty reception from the Generalitat. The Catalan Government not only considers that the adjusted population criterion "does not adjust to the reality of Catalonia", but also that the Treasury's approach does not include elements that the Generalitat defends as essential, such as the cost of living. Almost two months later, the Generalitat has let the central government know what it thinks, although it starts from the premise that no model "can fix the underfinancing and the deficit towards Catalonia".

Twelve years after the last time it came into force on January 1, the Generalitat budget for next year will has been approved on time. The Catalan Government received En Comú Podem's support and Finance Minister Jaume Giró thanked the party for their responsibility, despite his own party's misgivings about the agreement. En Comú Podem has thus become the executive's partner after CUP dissociated itself from the coalition government between ERC and JxCat, and has conspired to "destabilise" the government for as long as the Catalan government's "autonomist drift" –as opposed to pro-independence– lasts. The CUP's MP Eulàlia Reguant told En Comú representatives they had not helped the country, as they had renounced to put pressure on to obtain improvements in the budget, and instead were happy for a quid pro quo exchange with Barcelona City Council budget. "It is not a time for a fight, it is a time for dialogue and negotiation," En Comú Podem MP Joan Carles Gallego answered. Gallego led the negotiations with the Department of Economy and the Presidency to close the budget.

The Government will introduce a package of amendments to the 2022 budgets to reform the part of income tax that regional governments can regulate. The reform will affect those with incomes under €35,000 p.a., although the changes will have a higher impact on low incomes of up to €17,000.

The Minister of the Economy, Jaume Giró, has had an intense start to his term in office. This very week, the Consell de Garanties and the Parliament have validated the decree to face the bonds of the Court of Auditors, and in the Council of Fiscal and Financial Policy he has known the figures that will allow him to make the budget.

During weeks the legal services of the Generalitat worked to devise a mechanism to deal with the million-euro bonds the Court of Auditors has imposed and, finally, after an intense negotiation between Esquerra and Junts, the minister of Economy, Jaume Giró, presented a complementary risk fund last Tuesday to act as guarantor for the current and former officials indicted by the Court of Auditors. A week later, the risk of it being challenged in the Constitutional Court is decreasing, whereas pressure on the Court of Auditors is increasing: the leader of the PSC, Salvador Illa, believes the decree conforms to legality. On the other hand, Esquerra will present a petition in the Spanish parliament for a new inquiry on the Court's alleged irregularities.

Finally, the Catalan Government has found a legal formula to cover the (totally exorbitant) bails imposed by the Court of Auditors on 34 current and former Generalitat officials who are held responsible for the Generalitat's foreign action between 2012 and 2017. The Catalan Minister of Economy, Jaume Giró, explained yesterday that the executive council had approved the creation of a risk fund endowed with €10m to which all public servants can apply, with the aim of covering the economic damages that may arise from the exercise of their powers. Initially this fund will depend on the Institut Català de Finances, but in the long run an external entity will be created that will be like a public insurance company that will cover everything that is left out of the private insurance that the Generalitat has contracted.

The Minister of Economy of the Generalitat de Catalunya, Jaume Giró, has called for "co-governance" and "co-management" of the European Union's NextGen funds that the State will receive. "Catalonia has done its homework with regard to the European Funds", he said, which is why he has called for support from employers and unions to prevent the Government from being "a simple administrator" of the funds and, to this end, he announced the creation of a "secretariat for economic affairs and European funds".

This Friday's investiture debate in the Parliament had a certain historical flavour: Catalonia once again has an ERC president. The party was hegemonic during the Republic with Macià and Companys, kept alive the flame of the Generalitat in exile with Irla and Tarradellas, barely survived the Transition and, starting from a minority position in relation to CiU and PSC, now returns to hold the leadership of the main institution of the country. The embrace between the president of the party, Oriol Junqueras, and the now president of the country, Pere Aragonès, summed up the complexity of the moment, with the former in prison as a result of the events around the 2017 referendum and the latter becoming the first president born after the death of Franco.

Major surprise in the new Government: Jaume Giró will be the new Minister of Economy, ARA has known. This ex-director of La Caixa, who lately gained a special public notoriety as a Joan Laporta's right-hand man in the FC Barcelona elections, has been the person chosen for this key position in the new Government.