CUP’s veto on budget will have “extremely severe consequences”

Article published at Catalan News Agency, 8th June 2016.

Barcelona (CNA).- Radical left pro-independence CUP decided on Tuesday to maintain their veto on the draft budget for 2016, presented two weeks ago by Catalan Vice President and Minister for Economy and Tax Office, Oriol Junqueras. Thus, the anti-capitalists have forced the Catalan Government to extend the 2015 budget. Junqueras warned that CUP’s veto will have “extremely severe consequences”, particularly on “social services”. Catalan Government spokeswoman, Neus Munté, admitted that the parliamentary term is “hit” by the decision, which she also said “will have consequences”. Munté noted that the radical left-wingers haven’t respected the agreement with pro-independence cross-party list ‘Junts Pel Sí’, the main party in Parliament, through which they committed to “guarantee the parliamentarian stability” and facilitate the Government’s task. 

Munté accused CUP of breaking the pro-independence forces’ stability agreement reached in January of this year on several occasions and regretted that the anti-capitalists have repeatedly refused to “leave their comfort zone”. “This stability applied to processing the most important law, which is the budget”, she emphasised. The Catalan Government spokeswoman also said that the Catalan executive never asked CUP “to pass the bill with closed eyes” but to “allow the bill to be processed by Parliament” and make any eventual modifications after that.

Sources from the Catalan Government consider the agreement between pro-independence forces ‘Junts Pel Sí’ and CUP to now be broken. However, Munté assured that the Catalan executive will continue to work in order to “put Catalonia at the gates of independence”.

Extending the 2015 budget will have “extremely severe consequences”

Catalan Vice President and Catalan Minister for Tax Office, Oriol Junqueras, warned on Wednesday that “extending the budget for 2015 will have extremely severe consequences” for Catalonia, especially regarding “the social services”. Junqueras denied that the bill for 2016 was similar to that for 2015. “This bill laid on the table 1.1 billion euros more than the previous one, 873 million of which was allocated to social services”, he stated.

 

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