For the moment, the Government is limiting itself to celebrating the pre-agreement between PSC and ERC for the investiture of Salvador Illa and avoids entering into an assessment of the details that the pro-independence party has made known. According to the document distributed on Tuesday, the pact includes the delivery to Catalonia of the collection of all state taxes, but the Executive has ruled out confirming whether what was signed implies the exit of that autonomous community from the common regime to enter into a model of “agreement” similar to that of the Basque Country or Navarre.
“On behalf of the Government, I am satisfied with this agreement. This agreement is the triumph of politics, dialogue, negotiation. First of all, I am satisfied, it is a victory of useful politics,” said the Minister of Education and Government spokesperson, Pilar Alegría, who asked for “respect” for the internal processes of the parties and the “times” that have been given to “ratify and validate the agreement.” “They know that what we have on the table is a pre-agreement and they will allow me to be deeply respectful of the internal processes and the time that the parties have given themselves to ratify and validate this agreement,” she said.
According to the document, the Socialists are committed to turning the Catalan Tax Agency, created in 2007, into a true Catalan Treasury that will be responsible for all the taxes of the Catalans, as well as deploying its own financing from 2025. The quickest transfer will be that of personal income tax, from 2026. A decision that, in the terms of what was communicated yesterday by the Republicans, means that this community would leave the common financing regime to place itself in a model similar to that of the agreement between the Basque Country and Navarre.
Marta Rovira’s party referred to this agreement as obtaining “the key to the box” and maintained that it means that the Generalitat keeps all the resources collected in the community, minus what it transfers to the State, as payment for its services and a solidarity fund with the rest of the communities.
In order to materialise this agreement, the Government would have to obtain approval in Congress of the reform of the Law on the Financing of the Autonomous Communities (LOFCA), an organic law that requires an absolute majority in the Lower House. For the moment, both Compromís and Chunta Aragonesista have warned that they will not approve any modification of the system that does not imply an improvement in the financing of their autonomous communities. These two formations have three deputies, enough to overturn this vote.
The Government spokesperson, however, has dodged all the questions on the subject and has insisted on her satisfaction with the agreement reached in the last few hours, which has to be ratified this week by both the PSC and ERC. Alegría has based her answers on one of the Executive’s slogans: “If Catalonia is better today, it is not the result of chance but of something as revolutionary as the dialogue that this Government has started.”
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