“The immigration debate is the most important debate about the future of our country.” With this sentence, Junts inaugurates the first of the sections of the political presentation which he will debate at his congress at the end of October. The 155 pages of the document serve to rearm the formation of Carles Puigdemont as a right-wing party, with a particular focus on the immigration debate (while recognizing that it is not a widespread problem for Catalans). The key proposition of the presentation is the definition of a “Catalan model of citizenship” for migrants.
Junts faces its congress as the first opposition party in Catalonia and with the call of its leader, Carles Puigdemont, to be “the alternative” to Salvador Illa. The party does not escape the European currents which have led several liberal and traditional right parties, and even certain social democrats, to become entangled in the identity debate and to harden their positions on immigration in an attempt to contain the flight. voters towards the extreme right. The results of this tactic on the continent have been rather mixed.
In Junts’ case, the organization is called Aliança Catalana, the far-right independence group. Those of Puigdemont criticize “national-populism” in their presentation, with implicit reference to those of Sílvia Orriols, while calling for “promoting the debate of ideas to combat woke thought and national-populism”, which they consider like “two sides of the same coin”. .”
The comparison between the presentation approved at the Junts 2022 congress and the proposal for this month’s conclave confirms the change in immigration matters. After the emergence in Parliament of the Aliança Catalana, Junts demands to establish a “Catalan model of citizenship”, which he had not spoken of two years ago, for migrants, from whom he demands “clear duties » and offers “inclusive rights” linked, firstly, to knowledge of the Catalan language.
The language and the demarcation of the terrain when talking about immigration have changed in just two years. In 2022, Junts welcomed among its objectives “diversity” and the management of migratory flows in an “inclusive manner and within the framework of community processes and dialogue”. The new presentation, however, undertakes to “ensure that diversity is managed within the framework of Catalanity”.
This “Catalan model of citizenship”, the document elaborates, must be based on “a culture and a language of obligatory knowledge”, but also on “a series of civic values linked to coexistence, work, effort or to gender equality. “. The document focuses on issues of identity and avoids linking migration and crime as some mayors of Junts have done in the past.
The training calls for “establishing a homogeneous criterion on the rights and duties that arise from registration” as well as “establishing unspecified guidelines” to “better reorganize reception and integration policies”. including social assistance. In terms of language, Junts emphasizes that immigrants must be able to access free Catalan courses every day of the week, while emphasizing their “duty to learn and accredit it within a reasonable time”.
In addition to reclaiming the complete transfer of immigration powers agreed with PSOEJunts describes the use he would make of it if he governed. For Puigdemont’s party, the new Catalan Immigration Agency should “set quotas” as well as establish “the conditions of arrival, reception and integration” of people arriving in Catalonia, points which did not appear not in the 2022 presentation.
“A model that combines reasonable, clear and known conditions for accessing first residency and then full citizenship, with comparable rights and duties, works better than other alternatives,” the presentation says. The reason, the document continues, is that the model proposed by Junts “facilitates social integration and reduces tensions in the host society, which perceives order and predictability, without generating knock-on effects”.
All this despite the fact that, in its presentation, the party recognizes that, according to surveys by the Center d’Estudis d’Opinió (CEO), immigration “is not one of the main problems of the Catalans”. Then the party adds that “in recent years there has been an increase in the number of respondents who highlight immigration as a problem.” In the last barometer, they were 8%. The party does not wonder whether the pro-independence far right and the recent priority given by Junts to the question of immigration can be the causes of this growth.
Less taxes
The shift on immigration is most relevant in Junts’ political presentation. In housing, the party also confirms in the document the return to classic positions. After voting in favor of regulating rent prices, Junts goes on to demand “eliminating the current regulatory chaos” and prioritizing tax incentives to increase supply, in addition to building more social rental housing.
In economic matters, the party is deepening its traditional liberal tax policy and is committed to a general reduction in taxes. If in 2022 it was content to specify the reduction in the maximum rates of personal income tax (from 50 to 45%) and the “convenience” of removing other figures was left to debate, now the commitment to low taxes is total.
Thus, the party calls for lowering the maximum personal income tax rates “at the level of the autonomous communities where they are lowest”, as well as reducing the rates in the brackets below 33,000 euros. Junts also wants to reduce SME corporate tax from 20% to 15% for companies that “encourage innovation and reinvest profits”.
In line with the PP’s most aggressive tax policies, Junts pledges to abolish inheritance taxes, which he considers “unfair to the lower and middle classes”, despite the fact that scientific evidence shows that they are one of the most progressive taxes. The objective of “redistribution of wealth” certainly appeared explicitly in the 2022 presentation, but this is no longer the case in the current presentation.
