The First Vice President and Minister of Finance, María Jesús Montero, defended this Wednesday in the Senate the agreement signed by the PSOE and the ERC to reform the financing of Catalonia within the framework of the pact to invest Salvador Illa as “president” of the Generalitat. “This is what is provided for in the Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia, validated by the Constitutional Court,” he assured during his appearance, at the request of the PP. “Is it worth it or not to respect the Statute and the Constitution?”, said Montero, who criticized Alberto Núñez Feijóo for not proposing a “concrete alternative” supported by his barons, whom he accuses of “fiscal populism.” “Institutional disloyalty.”
Montero appeared in the Upper House to defend the agreement with the ERC, without, however, going into details of what the reform of Catalan financing will entail and, by extension, of the rest of the autonomous communities. The vice-president resorted to the argument developed by the PSOE to explain the agreement without providing figures or details.
The Treasury official criticized the PP’s “attempt” to “turn the political debate into an impracticable field” that “forces” others “to exercise restraint and composure” so as not to allow themselves to be “drawn into a current that “only generates disaffection among citizens.” “They come with the argument and it doesn’t matter what I say,” he anticipated. “That’s what it’s about, making headlines and creating a false debate,” he lamented.
Montero assured that the PP had chosen the “confrontation between territories” as a formula to avoid the debate on the economic situation of Spain, which he defended as good. “They realized that the legislature was going to be long and they have not yet assumed it. They are settling into the first two stages of mourning, denial and anger. There is still a long way to go to reach frustration,” he said ironically.
“They do not admit that Pedro Sánchez’s policy in Catalonia is producing results,” he said. “Illa has the opportunity to make up for lost time during the process phase and this legislature is the right time,” he added.
“Today we are discussing how to develop self-government within the framework of the Constitution, the Statute and the LOFCA. [ley de financiación autonómica]”There are no unilateral declarations of independence or disconnection laws as there were when the PP was in power. There is a debate about single funding for Catalonia. We have made progress in improving coexistence and we must value it,” said the vice-president.
Against “fiscal populism”
Montero did not specify the details of the evolution of the agreement signed with ERC and which has yet to be reflected in the legal documents. But he defended that “it is based on the broad consensus of 2005 in Parliament, when the reform of the Statute was approved” and that it will allow “to achieve a model based on financial autonomy.”
The Vice President summarised the content of the pact: “The agreement establishes an instrument, the Catalan Tax Agency, which would gradually assume the functions of applying the taxes generated in this community through the exercise of powers, administrative functions, liquidation, collection and verification of tax obligations, with recourse, where appropriate, to the mechanisms provided for by law. This is, he stressed, “an expansion of the tax space in line with the desire to advance self-government, while guaranteeing interterritorial solidarity.”
Montero also recalled that “the agreement provides that the Generalitat must contribute to solidarity with the autonomous communities.” “But not just any,” he added, but “a system that allows the services provided by the different governments to reach similar levels, provided that they make a similar budgetary effort.”
This slogan allowed the vice president to criticize the opposition. Montero ironically stated that the PP had launched against the government’s proposal without proposing an alternative because, in addition, Feijóo was unable to reach an agreement with his regional leaders.
The PP leader will meet precisely this Friday with the regional presidents of his party. And Montero has ordered them to present their plan. “I am eager to know the concrete and concrete proposal for the distribution of resources,” he said. “It is not about big numbers and principles on which we all agree,” he stressed, but about “distribution of resources.”
Montero attacked tax cuts in his regions, calling them a “tax race to the bottom” and then “asking the government for more money because it doesn’t reach them with the collection.” “What’s that called?” he asked, to which he responded: “Fiscal populism and institutional disloyalty.”
The vice president maintained that the pact with ERC will have its correlation with the rest of the regions, and defended that the government of Pedro Sánchez is the one that has distributed the most funds among the communities. “No matter how much they try to distort the narrative of the demands, all the autonomous communities, regardless of their color, have received the greatest resources in their history,” said the PSOE executive. “In seven full years, 300 billion more than the previous seven years governed by the PP,” he said.
“If the PP does not want to help because it cannot, does not want to or does not leave its leader, I ask it not to ruin coexistence for pure electoral interest. “This will not give you any results,” he concluded.
of resource allocation, not big numbers and principles on which we all agree
to the opposition, which he accuses of not proposing an “alternative”
