Read in Catalan

To enter into the negotiation of the Spanish government's annual budget, for ERC it is essential that there is a “favourable climate” allowing progress to be made at the Spain-Catalonia dialogue table and towards the resolution of the political conflict.

This was made clear this Monday by the spokeswoman for the pro-independence party, Marta Vilalta, in a press conference on the current political juncture in which she said that the negotiation of the budget - for which the PSOE-Podemos government of Spain needs ERC's votes - will proceed in parallel with the work on the political conflict, but support for the state accounts requires a "favourable ecosystem."

This was not the only factor that Vilalta pointed out. Although last year the Spanish government was able to pass its budget with the support of ERC in exchange for various commitments to the Catalan party, Vilalta says that her party are not very happy with the level of compliance with the agreements made, and she warned that they will review this carefully.

The spokesperson acknowledged that her party is "very far" from satisfied, because according to her, some parts of the agreement made over the previous budget have been fulfilled, but others have been only half done, or not even tackled.

"They would do well to get a move on in those areas that they have not yet fulfilled. If not, we would start the negotiation on quite a poor footing," the ERC spokesperson affirmed.

Vilalta explained that at the moment they have yet not received any communication on starting budget negotiations for this year, she demanded that the agreed-on committee meeting be held to check on compliance with past agreements: "We demand that the committee meet as soon as possible to look at the investments in detail. Let's get a move on. "

With Junts, "all the meetings that are needed"

In reaction to the call by Catalan government partners Junts to ERC and the CUP to negotiate the Spanish budget together for next year, Vilalta celebrated it and welcomed them into the negotiations, but took the opportunity to criticise, however, that last year the Carles Puigdemont-led party excluded itself "with its 'no' to everything," she said.

In spite of this, Vilalta reacted positively to the fact that Junts is seeking a position in common, since in her opinion, this will give the pro-independence bloc more muscle to obtain commitments from the Pedro Sánchez executive.

In this regard, she added, in response to the Junts call, that ERC is open to holding “all the meetings necessary” with Junts to address the issues when negotiating.

With respect to common positions between the parties, Vilalta also turned to the subject of dialogue with the Spanish state, urging Junts to rejoin the table by presenting a delegation, albeit one made up of Catalan government ministers, a proposal that Puigdemont's party do not currently favour.