The Government is convinced that the proposal for the State to assume more than 80,000 million euros of debt of the Autonomous Communities has served to kill two birds of one shot. First, because one of the great pending pacts with ERC unlocks and the future of the legislature in Congress is largely paved. And, second, because it places the PP between the sword and the wall. Between Feijóo’s opposition strategy to Sánchez and the need for regional presidents.
In La Moncloa they believe that the popular will be “very difficult to explain” their refusal to be able to have billions of euros “to improve the public services” of their administrations. And put the Minister of Economy of the Junta de Andalucía as an example of the right contradictions. “Carolina España said in November 2023 that Andalusia would accept a remove like that of Catalonia whenever at least 17,000 million. Now he says that 18,000 are a trap offer and a suitable suit for Catalunya, ”said Pilar Alegría during the press conference of the Council of Ministers in reference to two opposite public statements by the counselor of Juanma Moreno.
The expectations for this Wednesday to produce something similar to a consensus in the Fiscal and Financial Policy Council are exactly zero because The Order of Genoa is clear And the PP has already been explicit about its rejection. At least in that forum. “The presidents of the PP are going to vote that ‘no’. They will vote that ‘no’ to inequality, to reward the poor management, to the privileges and the purchase of the presidency of the Government with cash payment of the money of all the Spaniards to the independentistas of Catalonia, ”said Feijóo the Monday.
What remains to be seen is that, arrival the time of truth, the eleven regional presidents of the PP dare to reject a amount of money that would decisively vent the financial situation of many administrations for what remains of the legislature. The Government thinks, in fact, what will happen is that the PP will stage its strategy of no to everything in the Fiscal and Financial Policy Council and then, at the time, in the Congress of Deputies. But that, in the end, all, “without exception”, will be accepted to the take away the benefits of it.
“The conclusion is that the measures that are put on the table, which benefit citizens, are good, because the PP will always vote that not if it is a measure proposed by the Government of Spain,” lamented the Executive spokesman on Tuesday. In the corridors of the Senate, María Jesús Montero insisted on that line. “What is not understood is that when something positive occurs, the PP also puts against. I would predict that if the law goes ahead there will be no territory that does not sig Interest of citizens and autonomous communities, even those that govern ”.
Although the barons of the PP have come out in Tromba in the last hours to criticize the debt remove, none of them has announced their intention to reject the measure. Asked repeatedly by journalists in his usual press conference on Tuesdays, Miguel Tellado insisted that the communities governing his party will vote ‘no’ on Wednesday at the Fiscal and Financial Policy Council. But he did not want or could not ensure that none of the eleven autonomies presided by the PP will adhere to a mechanism that Montero detailed as an “individual agreement” that each autonomous community will have to sign the day.
Shock in the Fiscal Policy Council
This Wednesday, the proposal for the condonation or debt to the autonomous communities of the common regime (all but Euskadi and Navarra) of the Ministry of Finance will pass its first examination in the Fiscal and Financial Policy Council. The operation of this body makes it easier for the proposal to be guaranteed its approval. Hacienda has half of the votes, so you will only need one more vote, which will be, at least, that of Catalonia, governed by the PSC and where the initiative of this proposal comes from, included in the pact between PSOE and ERC for the investiture of President Pedro Sánchez in 2023.
Here is one of the keys to the debt remove. This Monday morning, the president of ERC, Oriol Junqueras, advanced the “agreement” with the Government to be condemned 17,104 million euros of debt of Catalonia. Hours later, the first vice president María Jesús Montero confirmed that debt forgiveness extended to “all” the autonomous communities, in this information all figures are explained.
The Minister of Finance admitted that it seems “perfect” that Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya made public the agreement before her. “That always gives security to what is going to be raised, because it means that it has the approval of the one who was promoter of this measure,” he said.
The eleven regions of the common regime governed by the PP can reject the “free” proposal in this Fiscal and Financial Policy Council. The complexity of maintaining that opposition increases when the matter goes through the Congress of Deputies, where the Government needs the support of most groups. From the territorial plane, it is passed to the parliamentarian.
On the opposition of the PP, María Jesús Montero initially ironized: “Obviously, this is voluntary. It means that the autonomous communities that after the approval of the law do not want to adopt this measure, that they do not want their debt to be conded, that they do not worry. ” This Tuesday, in the corridors of the Senate, this statement clarified: “Once the law is approved, then the territories have to sign the agreements to voluntarily accept that application.”
‘Punishment’ to communities that have made fiscal competence down
The distribution of the damage or removes of the debt follows “technical and transparent” criteria [fases 1, 2 y 3, en el primer gráfico de esta información]”In recent years, explained the Minister of Finance on Monday.
In the third phase of adjustment, there is another important key of the Treasury proposal. In their calculations they reward the regions that their regulatory powers in IRPF have worked up. That is, they have demanded a greater fiscal effort to their taxpayers, who have not dropped taxes.
This last adjustment has been stranded to the IRPF that depends on the autonomous communities, but avoids entering other taxes assigned to the communities, such as heritage or successions, that the governments of the PP of the Community of Madrid or Andalusia have used to make tax competence down in recent years.
Precisely, the Second Vice President Yolanda Díaz, was shown on Monday in favor of the Treasury proposal to condemn the debt to the autonomous communities, but asked her government partner to be in exchange for a conditionality: that these governments do not lower the Taxes on wealth, in a clear message to those led by the Popular Party.
“If the law ends approved in the terms we have raised, because it requires a law, there is no conditionality,” said the Minister of Finance on Monday. “This condonation is assumed by the State and there is no consideration that the autonomous communities have to do. I have said it from the first moment: we are generous because we believe in the state of autonomies and we also believe that there was a damage to the autonomous communities in the previous financial crisis that caused an over -indebtedness, ”he reiterated.
In practice, this condonation or debt removal, which comes from the claim of Catalonia and that the Ministry of Finance has extended to “all” the communities, will save approximately between 5,000 and 7,000 million in interest to which the regional administrations face . A cost that will fall on the State as a whole. In other words, they are interests of the debt that cease to weigh in regional budgets and go to the central administration, although it remains “money from all Spaniards.” That is why, the First Vice President and Minister of Finance, María Jesús Montero, insisted that it is a “generous measure” by the government.
Source: www.eldiario.es
