The Pere Aragonès government asserts that Catalonia was a "test bed" for what it describes as the "unshackled politicization of justice" by the Spanish right, something which is "again leading to a very dangerous anti-democratic spiral unbecoming of a full democracy". In response to the political storm which broke after the decision of the Spanish Constitutional Court on Monday to grant the urgent injunction demanded by the PP to stop the reform of the judiciary, the spokesperson for the executive, Patrícia Plaja, asserted that, from Catalonia, the alarm had already been sounded. "We warned that this would happen, we advised them to be brave and face down the deep state and the judicial institutions hijacked by the extreme right," she recounted.
The spokesperson reiterated that the judicial institutions with their mandates expired are being maintained "to fight against politics from justice using the main centres of power". "The Spanish Government must now decide whether it wants to overthrow this coalition of the political-judicial right or continue collaborating with it when it suits them," she insisted.
However, Plaja avoided making any statements on how the Catalan government should act to stop what is happening in the Spanish powers. As ERC, Junts and the CUP have also commented, the Catalan government has responded to the crisis by noting that in recent years Catalonia has suffered the consequences of the interference of justice, while the Spanish state looked on indifferently, and that allowed this political-judicial complex to perceive itself as strong. "We warned them that this was the beginning and they didn't believe us. Now they are scandalized, but here we have already seen this movie. What is happening is a complete violation of democracy and institutions", she reiterated.
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Dialogue table
On the other hand, the spokesperson has again come out to deny that the Catalan independence process is over, as the Spanish prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has claimed, and as evidence that this is not the case, the government spokesperson has referred to the existence of a table of negotiation between Catalonia and Spain to end the political conflict.
At the moment, however, the dialogue table meeting that was supposed to be held at the end of this year does not yet have a scheduled date, although the spokeswoman has not ruled out that it will take place next week. It would be just the fourth meeting of the table in almost three years.
Budget extension approved
Meanwhile, at today's meeting of the Catalan cabinet, the government agreed to extend the 2022 budget into the year. After weeks of negotiations, the executive has only managed to add the support of the 8 deputies of En Comú Podem and does not have enough votes to go ahead with a vote on the 2023 accounts, which is why, while keeping talks open with PSC and Junts, it today passed a decree setting the criteria for applying the budget extension. As of January 1st, the 2022 budgets will be extended, and will remain so until the new project can be moved forward. The executive insists that negotiations remain open and that a "four-way deal" is still possible. "We hope it doesn't last a day longer than necessary", said the government spokesperson.