The Government agrees with ERC to assume 14,662 million of Catalonia's debt and transfer Cercanías

The agreement that the Government has reached with ERC for the investiture of Pedro Sánchez includes, in addition to the approval of an amnesty law and the full transfer of Cercanías, the assumption of “part of the debt” of 14,662 million of Catalonia, with a mechanism that will be “extendable” to the rest of the communities. The acting Minister of the Presidency, Félix Bolaños, announced this this afternoon in Barcelona, in a joint appearance with the first secretary of the PSC, Salvador Illa, while negotiations remain open with Junts, with whom there is still no definitive pact..

Bolaños explained that the Government will take charge of 20% of the debt that Catalonia has in the Autonomous Liquidity Fund (FLA), which reaches 73,110 million euros, as of June of this year.. This, as he highlighted, will make it easier to refinance in international markets.. He didn't give many more details.. It was the leader of ERC, Oriol Junqueras, who was in charge of shedding some more clarity. The Executive “is going to keep 15,000 million of the debt with respect to the FLA and the savings of 1,300 million in interest,” he explained.

Oriol Junqueras assured that “today the one who wins is Catalonia”. “In various areas. With an amnesty that is for everyone. An amnesty without exceptions, for the Tsunami and the CDR, for all those who protested against markedly unjust sentences. But you also win in the area of political negotiation because the negotiation table will continue.. And Catalonia wins in the most immediate area with the full transfer of catenary tracks, signaling, computer programs and the guarantee of the necessary investment,” he declared..

The text of the document signed by the PSOE and ERC indicates that in order to clean up the financial situation of the Generalitat “a legal modification of general scope for all the communities of the common regime will be processed”. This, he continues, will allow the “assumption by the State of part of the regional debt with it, caused by the negative impact of the economic cycle.”. This will mean that the Government will have to determine “what part of the increase in debt” is due to this cause, and may also “use transfers to cancel the debt in the case of indebtedness with third parties other than the State, if necessary.”.

The coalition Executive had been in favor of forgiving part of the regional debt, but has always targeted the worst-financed autonomies. What happens is that Catalonia did not fall into this category, because it even exceeds the average financing per inhabitant. This means that it has been necessary to introduce a new concept such as the negative impact of the economic cycle to clean up Catalan finances, within the framework of the political agreement with ERC.. Although Bolaños did not stop with the numbers, the text itself explains that the State will be responsible for “around 20% of the outstanding debt at the time of execution of the agreement” contracted by the Generalitat in the state liquidity mechanisms, and will mean about 15,000 million euros of Catalonia's debt and a saving of 1,300 million euros in interest, as Junqueras advanced..

The text itself introduces the arguments why Catalonia must now be rescued. “A part of the debt growth in these years was a consequence of the impact of the crisis on regional public finances,” he maintains, and “the insufficient European and State response,” unlike, the agreement highlights, what has happened now to deal with the effects of the pandemic and the subsequent energy crisis caused by the invasion of Ukraine.

Bolaños also referred in his speech to the transfer of the Rodalies – the Catalan suburbs -, one of the great achievements of ERC in this negotiation, and specified that a public company will be created, 50% owned by the Executive and the Generalitat, and that it will be the Government who chooses its president. It is, therefore, a shared management, at least in a series of lines that will culminate with the transfer of this infrastructure.

Competing legitimacies

During his appearance, Junqueras drew a scenario of competing legitimacies. “The Spanish Government alleges that its legitimacy derives from the Constitution, but it also accepts that there is legitimacy that emanates from the Parliament of Catalonia. There is a conflict of legitimacy. “Canada's clarity agreement affirmed that there is a legitimacy of the legal framework, but there is also a democratic legitimacy, which can be expressed in a democratic manner and over time,” declared the ERC leader.. And then he used the situation in Ireland as a reference. “That brings us to the Good Friday agreements in Northern Ireland, when the signatories expressed that there was no democratic majority to integrate Northern Ireland into the Republic of Ireland, but if this majority ever changed, vehicles would have to be found to could express himself,” said the president of the Republicans.

The document at this point is also very descriptive since it speaks of “a situation of conflict” in which different legitimacies coexisted that operated in opposite directions: “A parliamentary and popular legitimacy with a manifest will concretized in this text and an institutional and constitutional, both essential in an advanced democracy and in a rule of law”.

Oriol Junqueras put a lot of emphasis on this although he left it up in the air for it to have a concrete landing: “This is not a question of time, it is a question of democratic strength. The more democratic force we can bring to the table, the sooner we can achieve our objectives. We do not set a time horizon, but rather we defend the democratic legitimacy of the Parliament of Catalonia, which must be accepted within the institutional framework,” he stressed..

The rest of Junqueras's intervention focused on highlighting the transfer of Cercanías to Catalonia. What is created is a joint company between the Generalitat and the central Administration, which will be a split from Renfe Viajeros in which the Government will have the majority and the presidency, but whose strategic decisions will have to be taken by a reinforced majority.. In practice it is a similar model, saving the distances, to that of the Port of Barcelona..