BARCELONA, Catalonia, Junts and the CUP have filed full amendments to the Catalan government's budget proposal, putting the accounts on course for a difficult debate in the Parliament. The budget was agreed between Salvador Illa's government, ERC and Comuns.
Junts said the proposal was not fit for Catalonia. Mònica Sales, the party's president in the Catalan Parliament, told a press conference that the accounts were bad and showed, in her words, a government in failure. She said the budget was designed to prop up a struggling government, not to benefit Catalonia.
Sales also criticised the PSC's reliance on the PSOE, ERC's constant concessions and the extremism of Comuns. She said the budget consolidates a way of governing that Catalonia has seen over the past two years, and linked that to weaker public services, infrastructure problems and what she called suffocating tax pressure.
She added that the budget would not fix the education crisis, the Rodalies commuter rail problems, the strained health system or what she described as the country's national decline. Sales said the accounts were the same bad budgets presented three months ago and warned that, if approved, they could be the last of this term and this presidency.
On the new funding model, Sales said it was the result of the reductions that ERC has been accepting. She also criticised the concession on income tax collection in Catalonia. For background on the parties involved, see our news coverage.
The CUP also confirmed its full amendment at a parliamentary press conference. MP Laure Vega said the budget was absolutely insufficient to meet citizens' needs and argued that the party had a duty to submit an amendment. She said the CUP would not seek an opinion from the Council of Statutory Guarantees.
Vega said the budget did nothing to address the loss of citizens' purchasing power in recent years. She also criticised the government's lack of capacity to listen to the educational community, adding that the current disorder should not be passed off as good functioning and normality. The amendments mean the budget will face strong opposition in the Catalan Parliament as the government looks for more support.
