The feelings of the regional presidents of Andalusia, Galicia and the Basque Country They were very different after meeting the President of the Government this Friday at the Moncloa Palace.
Juanma Moreno And Alphonse Rueda They came out “empty-handed” and “with few concrete details”, while the lehendakari, Imanol Pradalesobtained the commitment to be able to manage Social Security from 2025.
The Andalusian and Galician presidents have called for the withdrawal of the Catalan agreement and have defended an improvement in regional financing that would be negotiated multilaterally in the Conference of Presidents or in the Fiscal and Financial Policy Council (CPFF). And not one by one.
The Popular Party has not deviated from the agreement reached on September 6 by the PP barons during their meeting with Alberto Nuñez Feijooand none were prepared to negotiate “a deceptive bilaterality” regarding the financing system.
Moreno and Rueda have already had a fight Pedro Sanchez that the Catalan quota “weakens the country.” “Why does a Catalan or Basque dependent receive 50% of state benefits and an Andalusian only 30%? I don’t understand,” explained the first.
Pradales, on the other hand, did not want to get into that puddle and acknowledged that during his meeting with Sánchez This question was not addressed“I don’t go to other people’s houses because I don’t like them to enter the Basques’ houses,” he concluded in a speech he gave in Spanish and Basque.
Unemployment and Fogasa
In fact, the lehendakari He went to Moncloa to talk about his business and remind the president of all the transfers agreed after supporting him during his inauguration and that have not yet been carried out. Thus, in addition to demanding the transfer of Social Security to the Basque Country, It also added the management of social benefits related to work stoppages and the wage guarantee fund (Fogasa).
He lehendakari He said he was confident that the transfer of social security would be fully completed by 2025 and urged the Prime Minister to “accelerate the transfer.”
Their demands also include coastal management and development, Yesmaritime rescue, meteorology, film training and some issues related to recreational fishing; management of ports and airports and to accelerate the arrival of High Speed in the Basque Country.
Up front, Alfonso Rueda regretted that President Sánchez had dedicated “lots of good words, but very few specificities.”
After the meeting with both, Moncloa announced that the President of the Government intends to convene the Fiscal and Financial Policy Council “soon”, but without specifying dates. And that before the end of September the Preparatory Commission of the Conference of Presidents will meet to prepare a meeting, also without a date.
Conference of Presidents
In reality, Sánchez does not want the Catalan concert to be discussed at the next Conference of Presidents and Moreno and Rueda responded with generic phrases such as “I will look for a formula in which the other communities do not lose.” But that did not specify anything.
He told them what was already known, that he was planning to hold a Conference of Presidents in Cantabria and that he intended for it to only address the housing issue. But that will also delay it.
The PP has been calling for this Conference for months, and it has not taken place for 785 days, more than two years.
The regulations of the Conferences of Presidents allow a dozen regional leaders to put issues on the agenda, but they cannot force the government to make concrete proposals, to seek agreements, and much less for Sánchez to explain the agreement on the Catalan concert. That is, it will be included on the agenda of the meeting because Moncloa cannot avoid it, but in a secondary way, according to government sources.
So far, the Prime Minister has not explained his position regarding the Catalan concert, which he expressly rejected before the pact with the ERCHe limited himself to declaring at a press conference in July that he was satisfied with this agreement, but he did not develop it either in Congress or before the PSOE Federal Committee.
The First Vice President and Head of the Treasury, Maria Jesus Monteroappeared in the Senate, but did not give details of the agreement which provides that the Catalan Tax Administration will collect, manage and inspect all taxes paid in the community and then pay the State a share and a solidarity tax.
Sánchez’s series of meetings with regional presidents in Moncloa will continue next Friday and will not end until mid-October.
