A controversial agreement on regional financing between the Socialists of Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez and a pro-independence party could enable the formation of the first unionist government in Catalonia for a decade-and-a-half.
Negotiations between the Catalan wing of the Socialist Party and the Catalan Republican Left (ERC) concluded this week with a preliminary deal that the separatist party said would substantially increase the tax-gathering powers of the northeastern region.
“The Catalan government will have the key to the money box,” ERC spokeswoman Raquel Sans said. “The Catalan government will gather, settle and inspect all taxes.”
Sánchez hailed what he described as a “magnificent agreement” and “a step towards the federalisation of our state of autonomous regions”.
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It means that his former health minister, Salvador Illa, has the support of ERC in an upcoming investiture vote which could make him the first non-nationalist Catalan president since 2010. The Socialists won a May regional election, but fell short of the seats needed to govern alone.
Sánchez’s left-wing Spanish government has presented this deal as proof that the aftershocks of a failed bid for independence by Catalonia in 2017 have now faded altogether.
Spain has 17 regions, with varying degrees of self-government. Catalonia has more autonomy than most, with its own police force and an education system in which the Catalan language is given priority. However, nationalists have long demanded that their region be given full control over its tax collection, as is the case in the Basque Country and Navarre. Such a reform, they argue, would correct what they see as a lack of investment by the central government in Catalonia.
The details of the deal have still to be made public, although it is understood the new tax-gathering powers would come into effect next year. The agreement also includes a commitment to resolving the “political conflict” between Catalonia and the rest of Spain through dialogue and further protecting the status of the Catalan language.
It has drawn a predictable backlash from the right-wing opposition in Madrid, which has cast this as the latest in a string of concessions Sánchez has made to Catalan nationalists in exchange for their support in the Spanish parliament to keep his government afloat.
On social media, the leader of the conservative Popular Party (PP), Alberto Núñez Feijóo, decried “another case of separatist blackmail”. He added: “Another investiture vote bought by Sánchez, who wants us all to pay for it with more inequality.”
Other opposition politicians have also cited what they see as the unfairness of the deal, claiming it unbalances Spain’s regional financing arrangement by giving Catalonia preferential treatment. A similar charge of favouritism was made against an amnesty law benefiting Catalan nationalists which the government pushed though earlier this year and which is now being implemented, albeit with some obstacles.
But while opposition opprobrium of the latest accord was expected, Sánchez will be more concerned about criticism from senior figures within his own Socialist Party.
Emiliano García-Page, Socialist president of the Castilla-La Mancha region and a frequent critic of Sánchez’s concessions to nationalists, described the deal as “obscene and shameful” and warned that the party would not support it. Some other regional party leaders have also spoken out. This raises the question as to whether Sánchez will be able to persuade his razor-thin parliamentary majority to approve the final agreement.
[ Catalan amnesty comes into effect amid doubts over implementationOpens in new window ]
This is not the first time that tax-gathering powers have been conceded to Catalan nationalists in exchange for parliamentary support. The PP, under former prime minister José María Aznar, granted the region some capacity to collect income tax, with those powers being extended under the last Socialist government.
El País newspaper welcomed the latest agreement.
“In terms of actions, if not words, pacts with our nationalist movements have provided a great service to democracy and to the union between Spaniards and the country’s territories,” it said, while calling for details of the deal to be made public.
The irony of this agreement, like the amnesty law, is that it has been secured precisely when pro-independence parties are at an electoral low ebb. Both ERC and its more hard-line rival, Together for Catalonia (JxCat), lost ground in last year’s general election, yet because of Spain’s highly fragmented parliament, their support was key for Sánchez to form a new administration, giving them enormous leverage.
In May’s regional election, the pro-independence parties lost their majority in the Catalan parliament, handing the initiative to Illa and the Socialists.
ERC’s 8,700 members will vote on Friday on whether to accept the accord. If they do – which is not certain – Illa would be expected to face an investiture vote to form a new government this month.
However, a potential disrupter of these carefully laid plans remains in the wings in the form of JxCat’s de facto leader, Carles Puigdemont. The former Catalan president has announced that he plans to return to Spain to take part in the investiture vote after seven years living abroad to avoid the reach of the judiciary. He has attacked the new financing deal as being skewed in favour of unionism. If he were to return, he could face arrest, a development which might stir up separatist feeling and undermine the carefully negotiated new financing arrangement as well as Sánchez’s delicate governing majority.
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