The PSOE prepares the ground to reform the financing of Catalonia and bring ERC closer to Illa’s investiture

Having successfully overcome the challenges of the amnesty and the electoral cycle, the Government is now preparing to face the next matchball of the legislature. The reform of the regional financing system, pending since 2013 during Mariano Rajoy’s time, is presented as the new key to Pedro Sánchez’s mandate. In the best of cases, it could serve as a lever for the investiture of Salvador Illa in Catalonia and, in the process, shore up the majority that supports the coalition Executive in Congress. But the balances that the socialists will have to face to make this reform viable, both within their own ranks and with the PP autonomies or with their Catalan partners, do not predict that the task will be easy, quite the opposite.

It was the Minister of Finance, María Jesús Montero, who already opened the door last week to a differentiated negotiation with Catalonia, but the matter was brought to the political forefront on Sunday by the President of the Government. “It is compatible to improve the regional financing system from the multilateral plan and, at the same time, articulate unique financing for a territory as important as Catalonia,” he stated in an interview. The vanguard.

Since then, the flood of reactions has not stopped. Despite the commotion, the Executive’s approach is actually quite detailed in the investiture agreement document signed by the Socialist Party and ERC. On page 14, that document includes a heading, number four, which is literally titled “Singular Management”, in reference to the financing model. And the Mossos, the new judicial bodies, the penitentiary services or scholarships are listed as chapters for the economic items to be financed.

“Whoever has more powers must also have more means,” PSOE spokesperson Esther Peña defended at a press conference this Monday, recalling that, in any case, these are one of the commitments made with the Republicans for the investiture. of Sanchez. “The reform of the regional financing system is an electoral promise and the unique financing of Catalonia appeared in the investiture agreement with ERC. The PSOE is a party that fulfills its promises and its commitments,” she said, before assuring that any step taken by the Government will be, as she said, on the path of “respect for the equality of all Spanish citizens.”

Both Moncloa and Ferraz put the matter on the table right in the middle of the cross-talks for the attempt to form a Government in Catalonia and as a gesture to ERC. The Republicans, immersed in a deep internal crisis after their electoral failure and the move to the side of Oriol Junqueras, have just made it easier for the Parliament Board to be chaired by Josep Rull, from Junts. And the socialists have begun seduction maneuvers for ERC such as entering the municipal government of Barcelona or responding to the commitment of singular financing to try to move the scenario away from a blockade and an electoral repetition.

“Don’t make things confusing or confusing,” ERC spokesperson Raquel Sans warned in response to the Government’s offer. The Republicans warn Sánchez that the singular financing must place Catalonia “outside the common regime” and criticize Sánchez’s “maneuvers” for diverting the focus of his demand for maximums: that Catalonia collects all taxes. Asked expressly, Sans did not want to clarify whether or not a financing pact would be enough to ask the militancy about an investiture of the PSC candidate, Salvador Illa.

Much kinder words did not reach Pedro Sánchez from the other side of the independence movement, quite the opposite. The leader of Junts, Carles Puigdemont, assured that linking investiture and financing is “blackmail” and considered that the President of the Government would have to “answer several questions” to maintain his support in Congress, in one more political threat, before describe his proposal as “a scandal.”

Also en bloc, logically, the PP of Alberto Núñez Feijóo rejected the Executive’s approach. In statements to the media in Brussels after attending the summit of leaders of the European People’s Party, Feijóo said he was convinced that there is not a single autonomous community in Spain “that agrees with a singular financing of one community against the others.” ”. Nor is there even a single socialist regional president “who is willing to renounce what belongs to him for the benefit of a single autonomous community.” “It has never happened, never since the 80s when we began to approve the Statutes of Autonomy,” he emphasized.

From Ferraz they reply that it was already the Popular Party itself that brought in its electoral program to the Catalan elections of 2012 the literal term of “singular financing” to address the reform. “From the Catalan PP we will work to improve the unique financing for Catalonia,” could be read in that program. And the socialists also remember that even Feijóo himself raised singularities for Galicia in 2017 in a speech as president of the Xunta. “As a historical nationality, Galicia will have a unique presence in the foreseeable debates on constitutional reform, review of the territorial model and regional financing,” he assured.

Little internal response

The reform raises less debate, for the moment, within the socialist ranks themselves, where the days when territorial federations with a lot of political weight allowed themselves to challenge the party leadership on issues such as financing are long gone. In fact, only from Castilla-La Mancha, with the always critical Emiliano García-Page, has there come an explicit rejection from socialist ranks.

“We are not going to accept any model that does not take this into account and that does not compensate for the financing deficit,” they say from the Page Government, where their own singularities stand out. “We provide services to an older population than other regions and in a very extensive territory. This represents a higher cost of the care provided and the necessary infrastructure compared to other autonomous communities with a larger population, less territory and, therefore, less dispersion.”

The Extremadura federation also issued a warning about the “singular” reform, which assures that it will not allow “blackmail” by any other autonomous community in the process of negotiating the new autonomous financing model and that this system be used as “currency.” change”. “Singular facts or issues cannot under any circumstances lead to differences between Spaniards,” they say in the leadership of the socialists of Extremadura.

From Asturias, another of the communities governed by the PSOE, President Adrián Barbón avoided responding directly about Catalonia. What the Asturian government demands is a multilateral agreement in which all the Autonomous Communities are present and in which specific aspects such as depopulation, population aging or dispersion are taken into account.

A much more nuanced unchecking than that of Castilla-La Mancha or Extremadura came to Ferraz from Andalusia. The head of the opposition, the socialist Juan Espadas, assured that his party “is not going to accept any financing system that harms Andalusia and that does not recognize the uniqueness of our land.” And he extended his hand to Moreno to bring together to the Senate a proposal to reform the model for distributing funds between communities, coinciding with the formula that María Jesús Montero herself promoted when she was Minister of Finance of the Andalusian Government.

From the rest of the socialist federations, little noise. While waiting for the next steps to be finalized, the joint call of the respective territories is to carry out a “multilateral” negotiation that takes into account the needs and demands of the entire world. And to do so, they show their support for Pedro Sánchez in the search for an equitable solution for all autonomies.

*With information from Carmen Bachiller, Dani Cela, Miguel Barluenga, Leticia Quintanal, Esther Ballesteros, Ivan Suarez, Laro Garcia, Alba Camazón, Lucas Marco, Santiago Manchado, Luis Pardo, Elisa Reche, Rodrigo Saizand Olivia Garcia.