BarcelonaFor fourteen years, the Government has not had an absolute majority and budget negotiations are a headache for the current Minister of Economy (five extensions, not including this year’s, prove it). This has not changed at all in the negotiations for those of 2024, but there is a relevant innovation: for the first time, the Minister of Economy has remained in the background in the negotiations with potential partners. He has not been meeting with the PSC, with whom he has already closed the pact after fifteen rounds of negotiations, nor with the commons, the other essential partner, nor with Junts, the alternative in case plan A fails.
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Because? Last year, the minister’s role was eminently internal, but she did participate in the beginning of the negotiations. Then, as now, it was a team made up of two high-ranking officials of the Presidency (who led them was the general secretary of the Presidency, Núria Cuenca) and a team from the Economy who piloted the contacts, although sources of the executive emphasized that it was in full coordination with the councillor. What differentiates Natàlia Mas from her immediate predecessors (Jaume Giró, Pere Aragonès, Oriol Junqueras and Andreu Mas-Colell)? Beyond the fact that they were all men – she is the first councilor of the department – their political weight. All of them were either leaders of their parties or the second political figure – after the president – of those governments. The role of Mas, an excellent economist and, according to her environment, very methodical in preparing the accounts, is more technical. Is better? Is it worse? If she manages to push through the accounts, she will be the first councilor since 2015 to approve two consecutive ones.
2024-02-27 19:59:41
#political #weight #Minister #Economy
