This Saturday in Lleida there will be a game about the future of the budgets of the Generalitat. There the second part of the National Congress of the Republican Left takes place, with the voting of the political and organizational papers. It is a stress test of Pere Aragonès’ negotiation strategy with both the PSC and PSOE and the monochromatic government he heads. The meeting of the highest educational body coincides with a very critical moment in the negotiation of the budget pact with the PSC, on the success of which the soundness of executive action depends. Amendments received for the paper include sensitive issues in talks with the Socialists, such as the El Prat enlargement. Management continues to defend the rejection of the plan “imposed” by Aena, as requested by some members of the bases, but is careful to close the door to other improvement scenarios. And therefore hold the bridge to those of Salvador Illa.
Ever since Junts left the Catalan executive last October, Aragonès and his people have been enjoying the bittersweet honey of power. The party led by Oriol Junqueras exerts its greatest power and influence in the central government; He has managed to reap the fruits of his commitment to dialogue with the reform of the penal code, which improves the situation of the leaders convicted at the trial and brings him closer to his dream of being the central force in Catalan politics. But on the other hand, he lives the harshness of loneliness in Parliament (he lost more than a hundred votes) and this was especially tough in the accounts negotiations.
ERC has only 33 MPs out of 135 seats in Parliament. There is already an agreement with En Comú Podem (9 votes), but it needs more support, either from its former partner or from the Socialists. The PSC this week managed to get Republicans to accept the culmination of the B-40, a ring road in Barcelona designed during the Franco regime, which the ERC is questioning for its environmental impact. Despite the fact that Aragonès himself was trying to sell the Copernican Amendment as his mandate in the face of the final hurdle of closing the accounts (which, if all came to fruition, would go into effect in April), Illa himself pointed to the expansion of the hin Airport as the main problem that has yet to be closed.
Republicans are aware that the PSC is acting with the expansion of the budget pact for “election campaigning”. Indeed, both in Parliament and within the government itself, they defend the switch to the B-40 as an exercise in “responsibility” and insist that it is not their model. Aragonès said last Thursday he accepted “the political wear and tear” of the decision and that could be measured in Congress in Lleida. However, there is also the question of the airport and how it will manage to combine the demands of up to 4 amendments on El Prat and the demands of the PSC to sign the pact.
It is not trivial that the government and PSC negotiators called on Monday for talks to continue. Eyes are on the text that the bases will vote on at the end in Lleida. Among these four amendments tabled is one of the party’s former spokeswoman in Madrid, Joan Tardà, tabled by the Baix Llobregat Federation. It seeks to “assess the government’s position towards the airport expansion project put forward by Aena and the government”. In September 2021, the party’s National Council approved a similar text, refusing to upgrade the third runway “that affects the La Ricarda shelter [dentro de la red Natura 2000 de la UE]“.
Aragonès is therefore faced with having to accept the voice of the grassroots without beating the Socialists. The debate is served. Voices within the party advocate not including such industry topics in a presentation that they want to conceive with more substance and political background. However, in Lleida there will be no specific debate on the subject, as there are only two amendments: one to mention the case of Montenegro in the Clarity Agreement on the referendum (the roadmap on the conditions for a coordinated vote, which the government opposes) and another on the participation of Valencians and Mallorcans in the Catalan electoral lists.
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