agreement

Left wing ERC leader and ‘Junts Pel Sí’ number five, Oriol Junqueras, considers it “irresponsible” to talk about elections and urged current governing party liberal CDC and radical left CUP “to be loyal to the country” and “try to find an agreement”. Junqueras noted the “sacrifices” that ERC has made in order to reach the present situation and urged the other pro-independence forces to “use up all the deadlines” as agreement “is still possible”. “Very complicated negotiations have been solved in a few days, even in a few minutes” he stated. According to ERC’s leader, an agreement is better than “a scenario full of uncertainties” which would be elections in March. 

Current Catalan President Artur Mas admitted to being ready to call for elections, but won’t do so until the 11^th of January, when the legal deadline expires. However, Mas insisted that cross-party list ‘Junts Pel Sí’ “can’t make any other offer” to radical left CUP since “the presidency of the Catalan Government is not a fish auction”. “Junts Pel Sí has moved on everything which mattered. CUP hasn’t moved on the only thing that wasn’t important: the ‘who’” he stated. “Our mistake was to trust in CUP’s sense of state” he assured and added that CUP “didn’t understand that to turn Catalonia into an independent state it is necessary to add and not to subtract, voting rather than vetoing”. According to Mas, accepting the conditions of those who “put the vetoes and the crosses” would be “the end of the pro-independence process.”

CUP’s ultimate veto against current Catalan President Artur Mas has forced its top member, Antonio Baños, to resign from his position as MP. “I couldn’t or I didn’t know how to fulfil the [27-S Catalan Elections’] mandate and therefore I quit” stated Baños in a letter published this Monday. The radical left pro-independence MP admitted to being “amongst those who supported ‘Junts Pel Sí’s proposal and was willing to invest its candidate” and therefore feels “unable to defend the majoritarian position” taken by CUP’s Political Board and Parliamentary Action Group on Sunday. According to Baños, the only goal of his political career was to make this term of office “that of the irreversible break with the Spanish State”. 

Current governing party liberal CDC commented on CUP’s ‘no’ to investing President Mas as President and accused the radical left party of being “immature” and “putting the revolution before independence”, according to CDC’s general coordinator, Josep Rull. “CUP hasn’t been able to make operative the majority of 72 pro-independence MPs” stated Rull and added that “by accepting CUP’s demands it will look like the minority of 10MPs out of 135 is leading the process”. Rull denied that cross-party list ‘Junts Pel Sí’ would present an alternative candidate to Artur Mas. “We have moved because we wanted to be respectful of the 27-S democratic mandate” he emphasised “and they told us to reach agreements to make the roadmap possible”. 

Current Catalan President Artur Mas assured that he “would make a fool” of himself if he were to call elections before using up the time to constitute a new government, which legally finishes on the 10^th of January. Until then “there is life”, he assured and admitted that cross-party list ‘Junts Pel Sí’s only choice is to wait for radical CUP’s decision after their General Assembly ended in a tie. Mas insisted that elections are not his “priority” and warned that CUP could “cause” new elections but not “a change in President” as this would “derail” the pro-independence process. According to Mas, ‘Junts Pel Sí’s proposal “has long been studied” and as long as CUP “is within its right to accept it or refuse it” the cross-party list also has “the right to say this is how far we have come”, he concluded.

The Spanish Socialist Party, PSOE, will “tackle its legitimate responsibility” to offer an alternative government to the ruling People’s Party but not “at any price”. “We won’t dialogue on questions such as territorial integrity” warned PSOE’s leader Pedro Sánchez. “The coexistence crisis in Catalonia will only be solved with a constitutional reform and not with a referendum on breaking Spain apart” as this would be “the start of new breakdowns”, he stated. In relation to this, Sánchez assured that PSOE won’t reach any agreement with any party which supports a referendum, referring to alternative left Podemos. “We are for the right to decide but for all Spanish citizens”, he stated and assured that the “brightest pages in Spain’s history” have been written through dialogue. 

Pro-independence radical left CUP’s General Assembly, set up to vote on current President Mas’ investiture, ended in a tie. 1,515 participants opted for rejecting Mas’ candidature and continuing negotiating until the 9^th of January and 1,515 supported cross-party list ‘Junts Pel Sí’s proposal, including Mas’ investiture. CUP’s number one, Antonio Baños, defined the Assembly’s tie as “a challenge” rather than a problem. “‘Junts Pel Sí’ has the opportunity to make another proposal, as that which is laid on the table doesn’t have majoritarian support” stated CUP MP Anna Gabriel. However, ‘Junts Pel Sí’s top member, Raül Romeva, insisted on Mas’ candidature as “the proposal is still valid”. CUP’s Political Board will meet on Saturday to decide the next step and if there is not an agreement by the 9^th of January, new elections will be called automatically.

The eyes of Catalan politics will be set this weekend on pro-independence radical left CUP’s General Assembly, which according to CUP members Natàlia Sànchez and Xevi Generó “will probably be CUP’s most decisive assembly yet”. The 4,000 CUP members registered to attend the event won’t only have to decide on whether to instate current Catalan President Artur Mas but also on the social action plan presented by cross-party list ‘Junts Pel Sí’, as well as discussing the basis to start building the Catalan Republic. The assembly will mark the end of the negotiation process between pro-independence forces CUP and ‘Junts Pel Sí’, which started right after the 27-S Catalan Elections. 

The results of the 20-D Spanish Elections will force the political parties to reach agreements, as none of them have obtained an absolute majority of 175 MPs. Anti-Catalan nationalism ‘Ciutadans’, which obtained 40 MPs in the 20-D, have proposed a coalition whereby they, the conservative People’s Party (PP) and the Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE) would unite against “those who want to break the country apart”. “If there isn’t a roadmap for change, there won’t ever be stability and the populists will take advantage of our system’s decadence” warned Ciutadans’ leader, Albert Rivera, and added that “Spain is not negotiable”. Ciutadans’ offer comes after the PSOE refused the PP’s proposal to reach an agreement. The PSOE’s leader, Pedro Sánchez, insisted on their ‘no’ to Mariano Rajoy and assured that they would work to form a government of change. 

The negotiations between cross-party list ‘Junts Pel Sí’ and radical left CUP reached their deadline this Tuesday. The pro-independence forces have agreed on a 63-page proposal to start building the Catalan Republic and establish the legality of this constitutive process. Now the document will have to be validated by CUP’s base, which will gather this Sunday at the party’s General Assembly. “We are continuing with our democratic commitment” stated 'Junts Pel Sí' top member Raúl Romeva, who highlighted that they are following the “citizens’ mandate expressed in the 27-S elections”. Regarding CUP’s veto against current Catalan President Artur Mas, who is 'Junts Pel Sí's only candidate, Romeva emphasised that they “will instate a presidency rather than a president” and restated their proposal of “a collegiate presidency composed by a President of the government and three government commissions”. 

The negotiations between pro-independence forces radical left CUP and cross-party list ‘Junts Pel Sí’ to constitute a new government in Catalonia are continuing. The results of the 20-D Spanish Elections and the victory of alternative left coalition En Comú Podem in Catalonia and the good result of left wing ERC show that Catalonia is turning to the left, according to CUP. The party has therefore reinforced their ‘no’ to instating Artur Mas as Catalan President and has called on ‘Junts Pel Sí’ to propose “an alternative presidency which could generate a greater consensus”. CUP has also invited En Comú Podem and their partners in the Catalan Parliament, Catalunya Sí que es Pot, to join the “constitutive process of the Catalan Republic”.

PSC is the Catalan branch of the Spanish Socialist Party, a force which has alternated in the Spanish Government with the People’s Party (PP) for the last 32 years. Their influence in Catalonia started to decline in 2010 in favour of nationalist and pro-independence parties. Now the Socialists are the third force in the Catalan Parliament and the opposition party in Spain’s Congreso de los Diputados. However, many polls claim their key position in the Spanish chamber might be overtaken by alternative-left Podemos or anti-Catalan Nationalist Ciutadans, both running for the Spanish Elections on the 20-D for the first time. PSC’s candidate for Barcelona, former Spanish Minister of Defence Carme Chacón, is convinced that the Socialists are the only guarantee “to chase Mariano Rajoy out” from the Spanish government and restore “the dialogue” between Catalonia and Spain. 

The Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE) closed the door Monday on supporting a hypothetical specific economic agreement between Catalonia and Spain, similar to the specific fiscal pact already in existence for the Basque Country, which would recognise Catalonia’s “specificities”, strengthen its self-rule and better fund its institutions, public services and infrastructure. However, the PSOE did urge the Spanish Government “to update” the current inter-territorial fiscal scheme in order to improve the funding of Autonomous Communities such as Catalonia, calling for “a fairer and more equitable model”. A majority of Catalan society has been asking for such a fiscal agreement for many years, which would help reduce the chronic fiscal deficit while keeping solidarity with poorer regions.

The President of the Catalan Government, Artur Mas, presented on Monday the model for Catalonia's own Treasury, which will be developed should "the political conditions" be there, he stated. "This is the most serious attempt to build our own Treasury in the last 300 years", stressed Mas. "After two years of work, we are ready" to launch and Catalans should not waste "this great opportunity", he stressed. "Without our own Treasury, there is no real self-government", the Catalan President stated. The system would include Catalonia's own Tax Agency and  is inspired by the taxation authorities in countries such as Sweden, Denmark and Australia, which prioritise cooperation with taxpayers over controlling them. In these models, efforts are concentrated on severely persecuting tax evaders and underground economy, while the vast majority of tax-payers who deal correctly with their fiscal obligations receive assistance and have unlimited access to their fiscal data.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has reviewed and improved its economic growth forecasts for Spain, going from a 2.5% growth rate for 2015 forecast in April to a 3.1% one foreseen this June, and from 2% to 2.5% for 2016. However, the IMF has also issued recommendations and warnings, emphasising that Spain will have to carry out "additional fiscal efforts" and "structural reforms" in order not to jeopardise the country’s economic recovery. The IMF recommends that Spain reduce the costs of public healthcare and education by making users pay for part of the services. According to the international organisation, Autonomous Community governments – such as Catalonia's – should have greater fiscal responsibilities in such systems since they exclusively manage them. In this vein, the IMF has praised the fiscal consolidation efforts undertaken over the past few years by regional governments and has asked for an increase in their funding and fiscal powers, as well as for the adapting of the deficit targets to their needs.