Pere Aragonès calls on parties to vote in favor of 2024 budget

Ahead of the vote on the Catalan budget for 2024 on Wednesday, Catalan president Pere Aragonès has called on the left-wing Catalunya en Comú and the pro-independence party Junts per Catalunya to "show confidence” and vote in favor of the budget. 

On Tuesday, the Catalan government, led by the pro-independence Esquerra Republicana, and the Socialist Party reached an agreement on the Catalan budget for 2024. However, the accounts still need the support or abstention of a third group to be approved. 

"This is a better budget, with more money than previous years. It is a budget to move the country forward and to serve the people," Aragonès said.

In response to the new budget, the Comuns said on Tuesday that it was "totally insufficient" and insisted that it was "essential" that the Hard Rock project be abandoned. 

“No one really interested in moving forward will oppose this,” said Aragonès Wednesday morning, insisting that there is “no reason” not to support the 2024 budget because it’s “better” than the 2022 and 2023 agreements. Aragonès stressed that the “next step” in Catalonia must be to end the fiscal deficit.   

The government will approve the budgets in an extraordinary meeting of the Executive Council on Wednesday and they are expected to be debated in parliament in mid-March.