On Wednesday afternoon, Catalan president Pere Aragonès specified the price that Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC) is asking for voting for Pedro Sánchez as prime minister: the transfer of Rodalies, the main Catalan commuter and regional rail system, further progress in dialogue and an end to the fiscal deficit. A few hours earlier, Junts per Catalunya had proposed an agreement to ERC according to which no candidate who does not allow a referendum on self-determination for Catalonia should be voted, a proposal that ERC described as a “blockade”. After Aragonès announced their conditions for voting for Sánchez, Jordi Turull, former Catalan MP for Junts charged against Oriol Junqueras' party for considering that what they defend is “more autonomism” and stating he did not spend three years in prison to only raise these issues. At a press conference on Thursday at the EFE Agency, as part of the 2023 general election campaign, Junts' candidate for the Spanish Congress, Míriam Nogueras, also distanced herself from ERC and criticised that proposing to “go with a little list” is already an “old issue” because it has not worked over the last 40 years.
Nogueras maintains that the Catalan pro-independence movement has tried everything, and has ruled out the possibility of it working this time because, in the case of Rodalies, the transfer is already done except for the resources and infrastructure: “They will never transfer this to us because they know that if we had the resources and infrastructure, we would change the operator”. On some conditions set by ERC, such as Rodalies or the dialogue table, the head of Junt's list reiterated that reducing it to these proposals is not “high politics”.
The alternative advocated by Míriam Nogueras is to pursue a “much more uncomplicated” policy which also relies on the “confrontation lever” because, until now, the result has been “zero”. “One cannot go about with their head down and with a complex, as has been the case over the last four years, but people have had enough of so many promises, so much politicking nonsense; they want the country to work and for their representatives to get involved without looking for easy headlines”, she added. In view of the fact that ERC rejected the proposal to not invest any candidate who does not authorise a referendum, Nogueras argued that they put it forward because it is “one of the broadest points of consensus in Catalonia”, but she denied this would be “the only” element to be put on the table, and called for people to vote in order to be able to negotiate “nation to nation”.
The financing system reform, “old issue”.
Asked about Meritxell Batet's commitment to tackle a reform of the regional funding system, Míriam Nogueras stated she does not believe the still president of the Congress of Deputies, and considers this to be an “old issue”. “We are very much above this debate, either we can manage our resources or, if we continue to depend on what is decided in Madrid, we are screwed,” she said. Furthermore, Nogueras believes that Pedro Sánchez will have to properly explain “what he intends to do in this legislature should he get the required support” because in the last five years “he has broken practically all the promises he has made, and has humiliated Catalonia”. “We ask the PSOE to explain the reasons why the citizens of Catalonia should trust them and invest their prime minister if they have so far broken with everything,” she concluded.
Denouncing the non-compliance with the Mediterranean Corridor
At midday, Míriam Nogueras made an informative act in Tarragona to denounce the non-compliances of the Spanish State with the Mediterranean Corridor. The Junts candidate regretted that this delay “prevents Catalonia's development and affects the competitiveness” of the country. She recalled that Europe made it a priority in 2013 and that Spain has still not complied. For his part, Josep Maria Cruset, Junts' Tarragona candidate for the Spanish Congress, argued that the Mediterranean Corridor is only “the tip of the iceberg of the infrastructure deficit” from which Catalonia suffers, and also stated that, even in the Corridor's case, the Spanish government arrives “late and poorly” due to a combination of “incompetence and incomparency”.