2023-07-31 18:22:47
Updated Monday, July 31, 2023 – 18:22
The Minister of Finance assures that, if Sánchez is invested, he will reform the financing system “in the shortest possible time”
The acting Minister of Finance, Mara Jess MonteroJavier LizonEFE
The Minister of Finance, Mara Jess Monterois open to condoning deuda to Catalua and other autonomous communities in a new model of autonmica financing, if Pedro Sanchez achieve investiture.
Asked specifically about the formal request of Junts and Esquerra for a cancellation of the debt of Catalonia with the Autonomous Liquidity Fund (FLA) published by EL MUNDO this Monday, the minister has opened the door to forgiveness, but more than bilaterally, within a new financing system. “There are many elements within the system that not only from Catalonia, but also other communities have always put on the table. The Government will have to address all the components of the puzzle.”
The minister has included in the puzzle a solution to this debt problem and other aspects such as the distribution of the adjustment effort once the deficit rules come into force in the EU from 2024. She has assured that, although has not addressed it in the last five years, it is proposed to change the system “in the shortest possible time” if it continues in the Ministry.
Speaking to La Sexta, Montero stressed that one of the dysfunctions of the current system is that “debt is asymmetric” between communities, but he has pointed out that this is not only the case of Catalonia, but that “the Valencian Community presents a proportionally more critical situation”. According to the latest data from the Bank of Spain, Catalonia accounts for close to 40% of the regional debt of the FLA with more than 70,000 million owed, followed by the Valencian Community with more than 45,000. The total amounts to 187,000 million accumulated since the creation of the FLA in 2012 as a formula to provide liquidity to the communities with low-interest loans and long maturities.
Both in absolute terms and per capita, Catalonia is the largest recipient and main debtor of the State with the FLA, with which any cancellation would especially benefit this community. Proportionally, the debt in the Valencian Community weighs morebut it is not comparable, because it was particularly punished in the current financing model approved by the Government of Zapatero in 2009 and made, according to the leader of the PP, Alberto Nez Feijo“tailored to Catalonia”.
At the moment, Junts and Esquerra have already approved a motion in the Catalan Parliament to obtain the forgiveness of the debt with the FLA and the Partit dels Socialistes de Catalunya (PSC) has offered to support a partial haircut by creating “a coefficient of forgiveness”. Open to other communities.
Montero describes the debate as “precipitated” because “no question should be anticipated.” The number two of the PSOE has underlined that first the investiture is missing and then the negotiation of the new model. However, she herself is part of the discreet negotiating team of the PSOE to obtain support for the investiture.
Asked specifically about whether or not to rule out the remission, the minister stated that at the moment she is not speaking “neither one way nor the other”, thus opening the aforementioned possibility of a financial pardon that is already causing controversy.
The president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Diaz Ayuso, reacted strongly to what was published by EL MUNDO. “They buy power with the money of all the Spaniards, andn Comparative grievance with the CCAAs that strive not to get into debt“, he has published on his twitter account. He has also made a parallel with the self-employed and families who are not forgiven debt.
For his part, the President of the Valencian Community, Carlos Maznhas described the inherited debt with the FLA as “unassumable”, but has not expressly requested its cancellation as his predecessor had done in the past, Ximo Puig, why “You don’t live from the complaint, but from the reaction”. He has assured that it is equivalent to 12,000 euros per Valencian and that he will try to reduce it by activating the economy by lowering taxes, reducing political spending and the fall in the number of politicians.
Montero has stressed that the forgiveness request has been led in the past by the Valencian Community in a possible sign that it would politically present a possible forgiveness of the regional debt more as if it were in favor of this territory than that of Catalonia.
From Ciudadanos, the Catalan deputy Anna Degreerecalled this Monday that he voted against the cancellation motion in the Catalan Parliament: “The angry and spoiled independence movement is that they fan you today and pay twice the debt tomorrow.”
The deputy of the PP, jamie de olanois also critical: “Sanchismo only cares about Sánchez: Sánchez intends to endorse the rest of the Spaniards with the 70,000 million debt generated by the separatists in Catalonia. What will the Andalusians, Extremadurans, Madrid, Galicians, Valencians think… who voted for Sanchez?”.
On the other hand, the acting Minister of Finance has added that she intends to seek solutions for the town halls in the new financing system and that she intends to address changes “in a climate of dialogue, cordiality and understanding”- “It is evident that we have ahead of us during this legislature neither more nor less than the reform of the regional financing system, that has many legs”.
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