For the time being, the government is limiting itself to celebrating the preliminary agreement between PSC and ERC on the inauguration of Salvador Illa, avoiding going into the details that the independence party has made known. According to the document circulated on Tuesday, the pact includes the delivery to Catalonia of the collection of all state taxes, but the executive has ruled out that the signing implies the departure of that autonomous community from the common regime to join a model of “concert” similar to Basque or Navarrese.
“On behalf of the government, satisfaction with this agreement. This agreement is the triumph of politics, dialogue and negotiations. Satisfaction continues, it is a victory for useful politics,” said the spokesman for the Minister of Education and Government, Pilar Alegría, who asked for “respect” for the internal processes of the parties and the “times” set to “ratify and validate the agreement.” “They know that what we have on the table is a prior agreement and they will allow me to have deep respect for the internal processes and the time that the parties have given themselves to ratify and validate this agreement,” he said.
According to him documentthe Socialists commit to transforming the Tax Agency of Catalonia, created in 2007, into a real Catalan Treasury that will take on all the taxes of Catalans and will deploy its own financing from 2025. The fastest transfer will be that of the personal income tax, which will come into effect in 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 be placed in a model similar to that of the agreement between the Basque Country and Navarre.
Marta Rovira's party called this agreement “the key to the box” and claimed that it means that the Generalitat keeps all the funds collected in the community, minus what it transfers to the state, as payment for their services and to finance solidarity with the rest of the communities.
For this agreement to be achieved, the government must obtain approval in Congress for the reform of the Law on the Financing of Autonomous Communities (LOFCA), an organic law that requires an absolute majority in the lower house. For the time being, both Compromís and Chunta Aragonesista have warned that they will not approve any change to the system that does not imply an improvement in the financing of their autonomous communities. These two formations represent a total of three deputies, enough to overturn that vote.
However, the government spokesman has avoided all questions regarding the issue, insisting on satisfaction with the agreement reached in the last few hours, which must be ratified this week by both the PSC and the ERC. Alegría has based his 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 initiated.”