The president of ERC, Oriol Junqueras, has urged Junts to support in Congress both the forgiveness of the debt from the Autonomous Liquidation Fund (FLA) and the new regional financing system: "Let them stop fighting, let them stop blaming and threatening, and let them think about Catalonia, and let them think about the families of our country".
In a press conference this Monday, he defined the month of July as "decisive" for both issues, already agreed upon between the Republicans and the central government. Therefore, he called for political parties to act with a sense of responsibility and to keep Catalonia in mind when voting, in an implicit reference to Junts.
"The battle of political parties against each other, or often even within their own ranks, is very sterile, it serves very little purpose. The constant battles, the constant reproaches, the threats and insults they hurl at each other are useless," Junqueras remarked, criticizing partisan confrontation.
He recalled that the cancellation of the FLA debt, whose vote is scheduled in Congress for this July, would allow Catalonia to reduce its debt by 17.1 billion euros and would free up 1.1 billion euros that the Generalitat currently allocates to interest payments to strengthen public services.
Likewise, he stressed that with the new financing model, whose processing in the lower house is scheduled for autumn, the Generalitat would have an additional 4.7 billion euros. He reiterated his willingness to introduce, through amendments, the transfer of IRPF collection to the Generalitat, although he pointed out that they will not abandon this objective if it does not succeed through this route.
Relationship with Junts and negotiation
When asked if they would leave the dialogue with Junts on the FLA and financing in the hands of the PSOE, Junqueras replied that it was "quite the opposite," and stated that they would try to persuade "everyone," without clarifying whether this would involve a meeting with the leader of Junts and former president of the Generalitat, Carles Puigdemont.
Junqueras also called on the central government for a "much more reasonable allocation" in the deficit path for the autonomous communities, asking for parameters similar to those the EU uses with member states to be applied.
The Republican leader has argued that the spending ceilings of each administration "do not have to be identical," as there are administrations with surpluses and others in a situation of budgetary balance, which do not require incurring a deficit.
Corruption and criticism of PSOE and PP
After demanding that the Executive fulfill what was agreed with ERC regarding financing and FLA, Junqueras has lamented that the corruption cases affecting the PSOE generate "discouragement for everyone" and, in particular, among its electorate.
"And the realization that other political parties make a purely instrumental, purely interested, purely partisan use of these corruption cases is also depressing from a democratic point of view," added the Republican leader, pointing out that many of those who criticize the PSOE have been involved in similar or "much worse" episodes, in allusion to the PP.
Junqueras has admitted that all corruption cases cause him deep rejection: "Those of some and those of others, those that are real and those that are false," and has assured that he has enough experience to know that there are those who are corrupted and those who file false accusations.
"It would be good for all of us to have the certainty that there are no false accusations, but we cannot have it because we have seen how there were Ministers of the Interior like Mr. Fernández Díaz who gave instructions to a judge to invent false evidence," he denounced, lamenting that the judicial system does not act firmly against these types of practices.