The PP boycotts the meeting with Montero that will approve the debt forgiveness
The PP's autonomous communities have decided to leave en masse the Fiscal and Financial Policy Council (CPFF) on Wednesday, which will approve the debt forgiveness of the autonomous communities for a total of 83.252 billion. At the beginning of the meeting at the Ministry of Finance, the councillors of the Popular Governments have left the first vice-president, María Jesús Montero, and have left the room, leaving alone the representatives of the territories governed by the PSOE: Catalonia, Asturias, Castilla-La Mancha and Navarra, although the latter does not have the right to vote.
The participation of the PP's regional councillors in the agreement was not necessary, since the Government has half of the votes in the fiscal coordination body. With the support of Catalonia, the Ministry of Finance will be able to push through the debt forgiveness agreement. The team of the first vice-president, María Jesús Montero, already suspected the possibility of a boycott, which has happened.
After leaving the meeting, in a clearly orchestrated ceremony, the PP councillors appeared before the media on the steps of the ministry complex. The Galician representative, Miguel Corgos, took the floor to reject the debt forgiveness proposed by the Government and to demand a new model of regional financing.
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Less than an hour after the start of the Fiscal Policy Council, Corgos denounced that the document presented by Montero addressed “inappropriate issues”, since the assumption of the debt by the State must have the rank of law and be approved by the Cortes. In this sense, he assured that the agreement between the PSOE and ERC has already been negotiated “in other forums” and he placed the rest of the communities as “mere extras” in what was negotiated for Catalonia.
“This is a full stop and we are not going to continue accepting any more compromises,” exclaimed the Galician minister, who acknowledged that in the brief meeting with Montero they did not discuss the substance of the matter. “We have all stood up and decided that we do not want to continue working like this. This is not building the State of the autonomous regions and it makes no sense to negotiate on something that was already agreed in advance,” he added.
Councillors Alicia Romero (Catalonia) and Carolina España (Andalusia)
Dani DuchAt the technical meeting held this Wednesday morning at the Treasury, all the PP autonomous regions had expressed, with some nuances, their opposition to the debt relief offered by the Government. Those of the PSOE, for their part, had supported the measure. The Fiscal Authority (Airef), present at these meetings, went so far as to state that since the relief would have to be requested, the territorial governments that oppose it could have the option of not requesting it.
The Fiscal Policy Council is formally going ahead, but the PP councillors, who left without voting, consider that due to a lack of quorum it should not be valid. The Treasury considers, however, that, as the meeting of the body has been constituted, the vote will be valid. “The forgiveness has been agreed in another forum that is not this one, and the agenda of today's meeting has not been set by the minister, but by ERC. And we refuse to do that. All the autonomous communities have the right to decide all the matters and not find everything already done”, added Corgos on behalf of the PP autonomous communities.
Read also The Treasury proposes that all autonomous communities forgive 83,252 million of their debt Fernando H. Valls
After the Galician councillor, Madrid's Rocío Albert spoke, reiterating the radically opposite position of the president of the Community, Isabel Díaz Ayuso: “The logical thing would have been for them to bring us a proposal for new financing today, because we need more resources to pay for the services that the central government often imposes on us.” “We have to solve the problem of underfunding in some communities, we have been doing so for a long time, and we are willing to discuss all the variables, but to do so the central government has to present us with a proposal,” said Albert.
For her part, the Andalusian Minister, Carolina España, has explained that her region does not have a debt problem, which is being gradually repaid, but rather that it needs fair financing, which is why she has called for a new proposal, of which not even a “draft” has been presented. “The debt forgiveness has been given to us ready-made, we are not going to be complicit in so many concessions and privileges to Junts and ERC, to Carles Puigdemont and Oriol Junqueras,” she added.
“We are against the debt forgiveness,” was the conclusion expressed by all the regional councillors of the PP, who have not specified whether they will attend the bilateral meetings between the regional and central governments where, according to the Treasury, the debt forgiveness and the amount of interest that would be included in this assumption of debt will be specified. “When it comes to points that have been agreed bilaterally and what we say is irrelevant, why do they want us? To endorse the agreements of the Government with the Catalan independence movement? It is a joke that they bring us here for this,” concluded the Andalusian councillor, Carolina España.
The agenda of the Fiscal and Financial Policy Council also includes the approval of the distribution of the revenue from the new tax on banks, which was approved by the Congress of Deputies in the fiscal package at the end of last year. The PP councillors did not participate in this vote when they left the room.
Catalonia estimates savings of 1.55 billion in interestDuring her speech at the Council on Fiscal and Financial Policy, the Minister of Finance of Catalonia, Alicia Romero, argued that the high level of indebtedness of the autonomous communities is due to “the strategy of the PP Government in the 2008 crisis, which opted for cuts and caused an increase of 109 billion euros in the autonomous debt”.
The Catalan minister has defended the debt forgiveness proposed by the Treasury and added that between 27 and 29% of the Generalitat de Catalunya's debt is, according to a report by the Sindicatura de Comptes, due to underfunding.
Catalonia estimates that the agreement will allow Catalonia to save the payment of 1.55 billion in interest.
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