Two votes gave partial endorsement to the Hard Rock Casino in Barcelona, Spain

The fact is that during the vote on the second proposal, two PSC MPs, Joaquim Paladella and Dolors Carreras, made a mistake in the way they voted. They were supposed to vote against, but mistakenly voted in favour. This led to the initiative going ahead by a single vote: 51 votes to 50. The abstention of Junts and the vote in favour of the non-attached member Cristina Casol also facilitated this result.

In practice, neither of the two votes has a direct effect because the president of the Generalitat, Pere Aragonès, announced on Wednesday that the Hard Rock will not be paralysed. His argument is that it is a project inherited from previous executives that, although it does not generate "enthusiasm", he cannot just stop it because if he were to do so he would have legal consequences for all the commitments that have already been signed.

However, today's votes do have two political consequences to take into account. The first is that, with the rejection of the CUP's proposal, it has once again been demonstrated that there is a sustained majority in favour of the casino. A majority formed by the PSC, Junts, Cs, the PP and Vox, joined this Thursday by ERC. Therefore, if Aragonès ever wanted to put the brakes on it, he would not have the parliamentary backing to do so.

The second consequence, however, does play in favour of those opposed to the project. The Comuns' proposal that has been approved - with the error of the two socialist MPs - enables the government to "stop any modification of an urban development plan that involves mobilising more water resources than 100 litres per person per day". If Aragonès wanted to slow down the project without ruling it out, he could use this motion.

The key to the budget

Hard Rock has always been an issue that arouses passions, but now it is more topical than ever because it has become the main protagonist in the negotiation of the Generalitat's budget. The Government is between a rock and a hard place: the PSC is calling on it to give a definitive boost to the budget, while the Communists are demanding the opposite.

Thursday's vote in Parliament does not help to clarify things for the government, as the socialists can defend that there is a parliamentary initiative that endorses the project, while the communists can argue that there is another one against it. At the end of the plenary session, the socialists stressed that all their motions for resolutions had been approved.

By Quim Bertomeu