A race against the clock by the Catalan executive to get the CUP to withdraw its intention to reject the government budget before parliament meets to consider the accounts bill on Monday at 2pm. After the anti-capitalist CUP party's grassroots decided last weekend to reject the budget draft but continue negotiations, the coordination group of the organization will meet tomorrow to assess whether to withdraw that veto or maintain it. At the meeting, the CUP will centre their debate on a document that includes the CUP demands and the government proposals. Among the latest items that have been added to the government offer is the creation of a working group to address the proposal for holding a referendum on self-determination within this legislature.
In the document shared by the CUP, signed on Thursday, the Pere Aragonès executive also undertakes, during the first half of 2023, to analyze whether the negotiation process centred on the dialogue table has borne fruit and even broaches the possibility of suspending the negotiation. Specifically, the CUP has called for a government commitment to generate the conditions for this referendum and also "make explicit the time limit of the dialogue table."
As announced today by president Pere Aragonès from Paris, the government's proposal also incorporates a plan to increase the budget allocation on housing to 1 billion euros. The initial endowment was 749 million euros, and now the executive is committed to allocating a further 251 million added to public housing and public housing policies, as the left-wing pro-independence party also demands.
With regard to the CUP request for the Catalan government to withdraw its private prosecutions in Catalan independence-related cases as well as the full elimination (rather than just the reform) of the Spanish "Gag Law" the executive has promised that its interior ministry will carry out a review process on penalty procedures in order to guarantee the right to protest. Under the new procedures, the penalties process will be carried out by the competent directorate general in the interior ministry's public order administration, "correcting the current anomaly that the penalties unit is the same as that which issues the complaint", while accused individuals' right to a defence and to present their own allegations will be guaranteed.
In the taxation area, where the CUP has also made significant demands, the ERC-Junts government assures that this month it will approve the preliminary report on a draft bill for a tax on port emissions of large ships and December will see another report working towards a law to tax economic activities that generate greenhouse gases.
Comuns also reject budget - at present
Meanwhile, following the opening of a "Plan B" in the budget negotiations on Wednesday as the Catalan government began talking to the left-wing En Comú Podem, this latter party has now also taken a position like that of the CUP: they have submitted their intention to reject the entire government budget on Monday, while also continuing negotiations. And like the CUP, the Comuns assert their willingness to keep negotiating until the last minute. This was announced by deputies David Cid and Joan Carles Gallego in a media briefing from Parliament this Friday morning, after a meeting with the government lasting more than two hours. It was the third meeting since Catalan president Pere Aragonès opened the door to En Comú Podem to negotiate the accounts.
In the main image, Catalan economy minister Jaume Giró and president Pere Aragonès / Sergi Alcàzar