The president of Castilla-La Mancha, Emiliano García-Page, has rejected the agreement between the PSC and ERC for the investiture of the socialist, Salvador Illa, in which a Catalan “agreement” in the Basque style was established, as announced by Esquerra last Monday.
“I cannot endorse it and I fully trust that my party will not tolerate it,” said the Castilian-Manchegan leader in an institutional statement. Page has raised a speech in which he has put as a central axis “the values of the left” as the driving force of “equality” among Spaniards.
Right at the beginning of his speech, he recalled that he has set a position as president of Castilla-La Mancha and in a personal capacity, but that he cannot set it as a member of the PSOE since the only thing he has received are “drafts” and not the agreements as such.
Page is confident that what he has heard about the agreement in principle with Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya “will not prosper” yet. A party that “is called Esquerra” but has the “least left-wing” position that the regional president has heard, seeking “independence before equality.”
A rejection that will be supported by “millions of people” who do not intend to “leave aside the values of the left”, despite the insults on social networks and the epithets such as “fascist” that may be thrown at him.
The leader of the Castilian-Manchego Executive is confident that Salvador Illa can be invested as president of Catalonia, but not on these terms, and it would be “the best thing that could happen to Catalonia”: “I am convinced that with time and calm he would dismantle one by one all the set-ups that the independence movement has made.”
For this reason, he defends the investiture of the PSC “without the cost having to be paid by the rest of the territories.” Page has criticized the words of colleagues from his own party who accuse him of being the discordant note: “They think they are insulting me, but I am happy to be the same as always,” thus being able to “maintain” what he has committed to the citizens, he recalled.
The president of Castilla-La Mancha has compared the founding model of the independence movement with that of the PSOE. The former was created “to break up Spain, they fulfill their purpose”; the latter did so “to combat inequality, what we cannot do is support it or promote it,” he said.
For Page, everything that has happened in recent years in relation to Catalonia (pardons, reform of the Penal Code, amnesty, etc.) is a “continued series of the same movie” in which everything remains the same “because the scriptwriters are the separatists.”
The pre-agreement between the PSC and ERC is the most serious that the leader of the Executive has been able to hear, as it affects “people’s pockets”: “It is the most serious example of selfishness and contempt for other territories that I have seen.”
He recalled that taxes are paid by citizens and companies, “not by the Junta or the Generalitat”, and that they are essential to maintaining the quality of public services. “It is absurd to propose tax departments or tax gates in the autonomous communities,” he continued.
Given this situation, the question has been raised as to why the left has championed progressive taxation for individuals and legal entities, but is not doing so in the case of territories.
“It cannot be argued that the pro-independence party should have the cash register and the keys to it,” he said, adding: “I am convinced that my party will not endorse this.”
Therefore, given the possibility that the measure goes ahead, he suggests the idea of a rejection by the socialist deputies for Castilla-La Mancha: “This approach has no chance of prospering in Congress and will not go ahead,” he concluded.
