It is a demand made by ERC, a "priority" partner for the Spanish government, and also by the rest of the pro-independence parties: to protect the Catalan language in the new audiovisual law in order to facilitate the passage through Congress of the Spanish budget. And this Friday marks the deadline for tabling what are known as "amendments in full" - that is, voting against all areas - with regard to the budget bill. Despite this context, with the Pedro Sánchez executive in need of ERC's votes, nothing is moving in the Spanish government. From the Moncloa government palace they respond that any change before Friday is impossible. Another matter altogether is whether some kind of verbal agreement can be reached to save the match ball.
Spanish government sources point out that while they have been trying to “separate” the issues in the negotiation with ERC, they are also “very sensitive” to the Republican Left's demands, such as building protection of co-official languages into the future state audiovisual law. However, they point out that "before Friday it cannot be," and even less so when the bill in question has not yet reached the cabinet.
But this is the condition that the Catalan political groups in Madrid have set down. Already at yesterday's party press conference, Republican spokeswoman Marta Vilalta called on the central government to "thread the needle" to provide linguistic protection with the "necessary percentages and quotas" in the catalogue offered by television networks and large streaming platforms such as Netflix and HBO. They call on the Spanish government to materialize this, while also basing their 'yes' to the budget on seeing guarantees that the agreements reached in the past have been complied with. If not, ERC warns that they could register their opposition to the budget on Friday.
Junts are in the same position and will decide this Thursday in an extraordinary executive meeting whether or not to opt for an "amendment in full". They already have it ready. In a press conference from Congress, party spokesperson Míriam Nogueras celebrated the "policy change" of ERC, saying that the Republicans are where her party was a month ago, "when we said that if Catalan was not protected and there was no budget execution" they would not vote in favour of the accounts. In fact, if the government in Madrid does not change its tune, Nogueras argues that the pro-independence forces should register a "joint" amendment in full to the Spanish budget.
For his part, Ferran Bel, of centre-right pro-independence party PDeCAT, also warned that the audiovisual law is key for the legislature to move forward, and they expect a rectification in order to negotiate the state budget. On the other hand, left-wing Catalan group the CUP directly rules out sitting down with the Spanish government to talk about the public accounts.
They guarantee nothing
The demand is, then, shared by all four pro-independence parties, with ERC and its 13 seats in Congress considered by the Moncloa as a "priority partner" in the budget negotiations. But for now, there is no progress from the central executive. Last night, Spanish government spokesperson Isabel Rodríguez saw it as unlikely that ERC would link the budgets to the audiovisual law "with all that it represents and the institutional responsibility it currently has presiding over the Generalitat". She said: "I find it very commendable, it's very good, because they are also defending their language and culture and of course we respect that. But the budget are much more for the country as a whole and they are also an opportunity for Catalonia".