The Parliament gives the green light to the Budgets amid criticism from Junts and the CUP

The Parliament has approved this afternoon, amid applause and congratulations from half of the chamber, the Budgets of the Generalitat of Catalonia for this 2023 by 73 votes in favor, 58 against (Junts, the CUP and the bench of the right) and no abstentions.

Esquerra, the PSC and the commons have completed their alliance to give the green light to the accounts, which exceed 41,000 million euros and which increase by 3,000 million compared to 2022. The vote has reflected the change of direction of the legislature and the sour relationship that ERC has with Junts and the CUP, which for different reasons have reviled the agreement.

The

Pere Aragonès, has celebrated the new Budgets and extended his hand to his former partners.

The budget pact has had a second chapter this afternoon, with the approval of the law of fiscal and accompanying measures.

Esquerra has affirmed that this Friday was a great day, but it has turned out to be incomplete: the chamber, with PSC and Junts at the helm, has knocked down the proposal to assign an economic item to the universal income pilot plan in the future.

The Socialists warned that they had opposed it from day one.

"It is time to focus our efforts on the people who need it," argued the PSC deputy Jordi Riba.

The Socialists maintain that giving 5,000 people an income of 800 euros per month by lottery is a step backwards when there is "a rate of people at risk of poverty and social exclusion of 25%."

The Socialists have stressed during the debate that the Government must learn "the lesson" of this budget negotiation —many times agonizing— and be aware of its weakness.

After the departure of Junts del Govern, ERC governs in a minority with the support of only 33 of 135 deputies.

Alícia Romero, spokesperson for the PSC, has recalled that her group is not propping up the Government nor does it intend to exercise a policy of adhesion.

“Think of the whole world.

It will be necessary for them to seek agreements without prejudices and priorisms.

There are new challenges such as dealing with drought and ecological policy”, the deputy stated.

"He has to accept his minority and think about Catalonia."

The decree to combat the drought has planned on the session.

The Executive has approved that decree and announced a party summit without negotiating its articles.

President Pere Aragonès and Salvador Illa, leader of the opposition, after the end of the plenary session. Massimiliano Minocri

Albert Batet, president of the Junts group, has made Aragonès ugly at the end of the debate that he has chosen the groups that made up the tripartite (alluding to the left-wing government that they formed at the beginning of the century with ERC and Iniciativa, predecessors of the commons) and he has "betrayed" those of the 52% majority, in reference to the pro-independence voters integrated into his group and the CUP, which in the end served to invest him.

"You have chosen and today the tripartite that will serve to achieve autonomy is sealed," Batet said.

“This is the tripartite of Ada Colau, Pedro Sánchez and you.

The pro-independence majority has broken in Parliament but is still on the streets”.

Junts deputy Joan Canadell has accused ERC of pro-independence lukewarmness, "renouncing to complete the

", while criticizing Aragonès for upsetting his priorities.

"First he got rid of the CUP and then Junts to bet on the tripartite", and he has indicated that the

has cracked the independence movement: "But, Puigdemont and Torra made an effort for unity, Aragonès did not".

On the effects that the Budgets have on the governability of Catalonia, Canadell pointed out that they open the door to "another two lost years" and has urged the Government to make a move on issues that generate strong internal tension within Esquerra, such as the case of the expansion of El Prat airport.

"Madrid will end up stealing our talent, as they already do with taxes," the Junts deputy predicted.

The session has verified the absolute break between Aragonès and the CUP, with whom he signed an investiture agreement that established that the

would submit to a matter of confidence mid-term.

Eulàlia Reguant, deputy of the CUP, has described the Budgets as a "major disaster" because in her opinion they only benefit the banks, reinforce the privatization of public services and pay for large macro-projects that are contrary to the environment, such as the Hard Rock recreational complex , in Tarragona, the extension of the El Prat airport and the B-40.

“The Budgets are the confirmation of his turn to the right and of having resigned from promoting a social agenda just to govern”, she has affirmed.

The Minister of Economy, Natàlia Mas, and the ERC spokesperson, Marta Vilalta, have praised the goodness of the accounts and all the improvements they incorporate, such as the increase of 1,200 million in health, the 8% increase in the Income Index of Citizen Guarantee or the consolidation of 4,000 health workers incorporated during the pandemic.

"Neither all or nothing or the worse the better serve the global interest to move forward," said the spokeswoman, who has reproached Junts for, on the one hand, presenting amendments to increase spending and, on the other, others to lower taxes.

"The magic wand doesn't work for these things either," she said, alluding to independence.

Jéssica Albiach, from the commons, has defended her agreement and stressed that there is not a single "euro" in it for the large projects claimed by the PSC.

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