Video: @socialistes_cat / IG

The Partit dels Socialistes de Catalunya (PSC) has called for a broad progressive majority in Spain’s general election on 29 November, arguing that the election will interrupt parliamentary work on a new regional funding model and a planned reduction in Catalonia’s debt to the state.

For Catalan residents, the immediate consequence is that the proposed funding reform and debt measure would have to restart their passage through the Spanish Congress of Deputies after the election, rather than being decided in the current parliamentary term.

PSC first deputy secretary and spokesperson Lluïsa Moret made the appeal at a press conference in Barcelona on Monday, 5 October. She said her party would continue working with Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC) and Comuns, its partners in Salvador Illa’s Catalan government.

“We will work intensely so that nothing stops. But everything that had to go to the Congress of Deputies and required parliamentary processing will have to reach a Congress with sufficient majorities for broad approval.”

Funding reform and state-liquidity debt would restart

The election was announced by Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez on Monday. According to La Vanguardia, the dissolution of Spain’s parliament means bills and other initiatives still being processed by Congress will lapse and would need to begin again in the next legislature.

The measures identified as particularly significant for Catalonia are:

  • a reform of the regional funding model, based on an agreement between the Socialists and ERC;
  • the proposed cancellation of debt linked to the Fondo de Liquidez Autonómica (FLA), the state liquidity fund through which regional governments have borrowed from the central administration.

La Vanguardia reported that both measures had been expected in the coming months, although support for the funding reform in Congress was not guaranteed. It said the reforms would now require a new parliamentary process if they are pursued after the election.

Moret said some pending matters could still advance without a vote in Congress before parliament is dissolved, but measures requiring parliamentary approval would depend on the composition of the next Congress.

PSC to decide its election list this week

The PSC will hold an extraordinary meeting of its Executive Commission on Tuesday, 6 October, followed by a National Council meeting on Saturday, 10 October, to approve decisions on its candidate list for the general election.

Moret also criticised Junts, PP and Vox, saying Junts was taking positions aligned with Spain’s right and far right. The PSC has not publicly named its lead candidate for the election.

Primary sources: Exclama!, grupo.renfe.com. Reported by lavanguardia.com, Europa Press Barcelona.