Meanwhile, speaking during an interview broadcast on Catalan television last night, Zapatero defended his government’s decision to increase the rate of VAT from June (read article in Castilian here, La Vanguardia). He said it was an acceptable “sacrifice” to increase the standard rate of VAT (IVA in Castilian) from 16 to 18 percent, as it would guarantee a certain level of protection for society and maintain economic growth. Zapatero added that even with the increase, Spain would be the country in Europe with the third lowest VAT rate, where the average is 20 percent. “If we want to reduce the deficit and if we want to keep investing in places like this [speaking of the particle accelerator centre, Sincrotón, that Zapatero came to inaugurate and where the interview was recorded]…we have to make sacrifices and this is one of the ones we have to make,” said the Spanish prime minister. During the interview, Zapatero also spoke about the vote pending at the Constitutional Court on the Catalan statute, which he said he believed was constitutional, gave his support to José Montilla to continue as president of the Generalitat, and said he was confident that the Catalan government would deal firmly with the electricity company Endesa following the problems caused by snow earlier this month.

Also in the news: Spanish government reaches agreement with autonomous communities about budget cuts (read full article in Catalan here, Avui); Man who killed two female police officers sentenced to 94 years in prison (read full article in Castilian here, La Vanguardia); Catalan chefs to give classes at Harvard university (read full article in Castilian here, El Periodico).