The barons of the Popular Party gathered to face the Catalan concert. It was in the Madrid palace of the Dukes of Pastrana that the presidents of the eleven communities and two autonomous cities governed by the PP met to formalize, with a family photo included, their rejection of the new regional financing model proposed by the Government in the framework of compliance with the agreement with the Republican Left of Catalonia.
The leader of the popular parties, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, established the bases of his position that was ratified by the signature of these 13 regional leaders who signed that “what belongs to each one is negotiated between all.” Thus the popular insist on the The Conference of Presidents must be convened If it is about changing the regional financing model.
All eyes turned to Isabel Díaz Ayuso as, one by one, the regional presidents came out to support their leader’s words. The president of the Community of Madrid began by “denying” the already repeated phrase of the president of the government “Spain is going like a rocket”and makes a less optimistic X-ray of the state of the common fund that Pedro Sánchez “wants to give to the independentists”. “The portfolio of the Spanish people cannot be expanded any further”, and with the same tone of criticism, he reiterates his position of not attending bilateral meetings, between the Executive and the autonomous communities, to “fall into deception” and he also calls for a conclave of regional presidents that has not met for two years, “As long as there is no conference of presidents, we are not going to fall into Sánchez’s trap of going one by one to discuss the problems”, says the president, which concerns “all Spaniards.
“He wants to summon us one by one to promise us money that he doesn’t have, while he builds the Catalan state.” So, Ayuso declines the possibility of meeting the president of the government talk about regional financing, but leaves open the possibility of going to Moncloa to address other issues such as “growing insecurity or the migration crisis”, among other adversities that the different autonomous communities may face.
This contrasts with the opinion of the Andalusian president, Juanma Moreno Bonilla, who assured that he was “ready to talk to everyone, including the president of the government, but we are not going to blackmail“. Mantra repeated among the popular, no blackmail “we are not satisfied with the leftovers”, even if they are abundant, as stressed by the Galician president, Alfonso Rueda, who assured that even if the leftovers of the “banquet for Catalonia” , are abundant – referring to the 800 million euros that Sánchez announced for the communities – “we are not going to fight for the leftovers”.
“Whether it is debt cancellation, Catalan quotas or preferential treatment, we are completely opposed, it is not a question of money, it is a question of principles,” said the president of Castile and Leon, Alfonso Fernández Mañueco. The Castilian-Leonese attacked the government for comparing what it plans to do with Catalonia in tax matters with the differentiated taxation of common territoriesor Soria, Teruel or Basin. Territories that, according to Mañueco, benefit from different treatment due to their low population density, the president then finds it ugly that the government tries to make these comparisons and accuses them of “trying to hide their shame” by making a comparison “that has nothing to do with the Catalan concert.
The one who clearly knows that he will go to Moncloa to discuss issues beyond financing is López Miras, from Murcia, who asks the President of the Government to “abandon demagogy”and represses the Executive that has been in Moncloa for more than five years and that “has had six years” to address the issue of regional financing.
Who will go to the Moncloa Palace to meet the president is a question that the presidents have left hanging, but what they all agree on is this phrase that Feijóo said in his speech and that Ayuso has repeated several times, “let’s all go together”said the president. The thirteen presidents are demanding this conclave of autonomies and want to negotiate on the common fund and other issues, such as immigration, “in broad daylight and with a stenographer,” concluded the Madrid president.
