Financing, pacts and nothing from the Catalan Republic
The Treasury proposal for a new financing model attempts to stifle sovereign aspirations with a million-dollar injection that, far from resolving the national question, reinforces state control and benefits elites, while Junts and ERC dispute the crumbs of the limited autonomy they seek above their vacuous liberation speech. The only fundamental solution for Catalonia is mobilization and organization for self-determination and socialism.
They prioritize the governability of autonomy
The announcement by the Ministry of Finance about an additional injection of 21.000 million euros for the regional financing model marks the beginning of 2026 with a new political maneuver by the deteriorated leadership of Spanish President Pedro Sánchez (PSOE). Under the promise of a model “more balanced”, The Government tries to square the circle that emerged from its unfulfilled promises: satisfy the demands of ERC without breaking the framework of the “coffee for everyone”, a strategy that seeks to shore up governability at the cost of indefinitely postponing self-determination aspirations. Montero's central proposal consists of increasing the participation of communities in personal income tax and VAT to the 55% and the 56,5%, respectively. For Catalonia, This translates into a supposed “unique financing” that would report some 4.700 additional million euros. The objective is to comply with the principle of ordinality - that Catalonia does not lose positions in per capita income after its contribution to the common fund -, going from being the tenth community to receive resources to the third. Despite official optimism, always inflated when he makes promises, the viability of the plan is doubtful. The Government needs an absolute majority in Congress, an impossible arithmetic without the joint support of Junts and the PP, or at least one of them. With Junts amending the entire proposal as insufficient and the cynical PP calling it “political corruption”, The agreement runs the risk of becoming a dead letter before reaching the Cortes..
The rainbow of the regime and the system in the heights
Pedro Sánchez displays his usual survival pragmatism, using the State checkbook to keep ERC within the constitutional fold. Meanwhile, Oriol Junqueras (ERC) tries to sell the deal as a historic success (“everyone wins”) to recover electoral ground, although it conditions its support for the General Budgets on the State “disengagement” the total collection of personal income tax by the Generalitat, a commitment that Montero continues to delay. together, led by former president Carles Puigdemont, opposes the pact to dispute with ERC, since when he was in the Government he always sought similar negotiations with the central power; by, in all areas, adopt reactionary positions similar to those of Alianza Catalana. In the meantime, The PP and Vox denounce a “separatist blackmail”, using the conflict to fuel Spanish nationalism in their own territories. Salvador Illa (PSC) acts as the guarantor of this new stage of “normalization”. His role is that of a manager who “sweat the shirt” to apply the investiture agreements, but always under the premise that Catalan solidarity remains within the limits set by the central State. Illa represents the return to the autonomous order, seeking to anesthetize the political conflict through the technical management of resources. Everyone fights hard and disputes electorally, Nevertheless, none “takes their feet off the plate” of the rules imposed by the constitutional monarchical regime and the capitalist system.
Rajoy club, Sánchez carrot: two tactics for the same strategy
We are faced with two tactics for the same purpose. If Mariano Rajoy used the “garrote” of the article 155 and judicial repression to stop the independence movement, Sánchez uses the “carrot” of financial agreements and partial concessions. Both strategies share the same strategic objective: preserve the unity of Spain, the framework of the '78 regime and monarchical power. The slogan is clear: autonomy yes (and some more financed if necessary), but self-determination and republic, never. The prior agreements of Sánchez with CKD and Junts have had a terrible result: The PSC took over institutional power in Catalonia and the independence movement was betrayed, which has facilitated the growth of far-right options such as Aliança Catalana. The policy of pacts at heights has not brought a solution, but a demobilization that the right and the extreme right are capitalizing on.
The disaster of unity with the bourgeoisie and its accomplices
Once again, in this case with the Catalan process, It has been shown that it is a tragic error and/or a perfidious policy for the left and social movements to seek unity with the different expressions of the Catalan bourgeoisie or with those who agree with it to manage the crumbs of the State. To agree with them is to accept the rules of the game of Spanish capitalism and renounce a revolutionary structural transformation of society.. It is something that the CUP leadership would also have to reflect on., that although he maintains a discourse of support for the struggles and for self-determination, goes from lurch to lurch, with ERC-friendly orientations, Junts and all kinds of reformists. As a result, unfortunately it continues to decline as a consistent anti-capitalist alternative. History also continues to demonstrate that those presented as partial “great achievements” do not bring us closer to self-determination., On the contrary, they consolidate the current status quo. They are not steps forward, cement the continuity of the regime shaped by Francoism and the transition.
The only way out: self-determination and socialism
The way out of this labyrinth will not come from a reform of regional financing or from dialogue tables that only serve to gain time.. True emancipation is only possible through the unique fight for self-determination and socialism. This requires a strategy independent of the governments and parties of the bourgeoisie., whether Spanish or Catalan. Just an organized working class, that disputes power with the people and gets rid of institutionalist illusions, will be able to break the chains of monarchy and capital, building an alternative that is not sold for a few million more in the State budget. From SOL we believe that the CUP, Anti-capitalists and other forces that claim to be revolutionary socialists should call for a broad democratic debate to reformulate a common revolutionary and socialist strategy for Catalonia., starting from supporting workers' struggles for wages, better working conditions, decent housing and other postponed rights, always from class independence.
