He uses the Sant Esteve speech to pressure PSC and Junts for the budgets

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The reform of the Penal Code approved last week by the Senate has become the balloon of oxygen that the president of the Generalitat, Pere Aragonès, was looking for, to try to fulfill a double objective: to consolidate the strategy of dialogue with the State and, in return, to strengthen a presidency that last October seemed to be tottering when his Government split in two. Only time will tell if this is enough, but the president believes that the time has come to take stock of the work done and indicate where he is going. In his Sant Esteve speech he considered it "obvious" that the dialogue is starting to "bring its fruits" at least in the judicial part of the conflict, since the crime of sedition has been repealed and that of embezzlement has been modified . Having overcome this issue, he defends that it is now necessary to open a "new phase of the negotiation" to find "a solution" to the political part of the dispute.


His proposal is to give shape to the "clarity agreement" that he proposed just three months ago and which, as he explained this Monday, involves weaving a "great agreement" in Catalonia on what a new referendum should look like for then bring it to the table of the Spanish government. "Until we give an answer, the political conflict will exist," he warned. Last year, in his first Sant Esteve speech as president, it was impossible not to detect a lament between the lines for the fact that the dialogue table had not yet started. Then he demanded from the State "tangible results" in the negotiation because, if not, it would be necessary to look for "alternatives". Now the president considers that he has already obtained these results, but that it is not enough.

It is clear that dialogue and negotiation to resolve the conflict with the State is beginning to bear fruit."



Since next year is an election year - there are municipal and general elections - and it will be difficult to get the PSOE to sit down to discuss the issue, Aragonès buys time and instead of starting the work in Madrid, he will start it in Catalonia. Thus, the Generalitat will dedicate this 2023 to promoting "a great conversation with the whole of Catalan society" to forge a consensus around what a new consultation should look like. A "country proposal" to "vote again" and ensure that this time the vote is "homologable at the international level" and "all parties feel included". Ultimately, and even though he can't say it like that, let him not be a 9-N or a 1-O again. The task is enormous, both in terms of convincing the slower independentism to join this project and in the time to make the PSOE accept or even talk about the issue. That is why Aragonès does not set limits and that, in all probability, he will look for this great agreement without haste to try to bring it to Madrid when the electoral storm has already passed and, if possible, that the votes of Esquerraonce again be key to the governability of the State .


Economic management

To mark distances both with his predecessors and with the rest of the regional presidents, Aragonès decided last year to change the traditional speech on December 30th to Sant Esteve and, in addition, to make it itinerant. This year it has chosen the Library of Catalonia, a message for culture, for health - it used to be a hospital - and also to try to reinforce its slogan of "whole Catalonia" - it is in the Raval district -. Beyond the political conflict, he has used his words to vindicate the economic and social management of his Government and to pressure PSC and Junts to derail next year's budgets. His argument is that, for example, they are strengthening healthcare with 1,000 million euros and that "only political will is needed" for them to see the light of day. If there are no setbacks, the pact will be next week or the next. If it doesn't arrive then the alarms will go off.
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