After almost six months of waiting since he was sworn in as President of the Xunta with his first absolute majority, Alfonso Rueda held a meeting this Friday in La Moncloa with the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez. This is their second meeting, after the one in 2022, when the former Galician President, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, made the big leap into national politics. At the meeting, scheduled for 12:30 p.m., the head of the Galician Executive will address issues that he considers priorities for the Community, such as the need to negotiate a reform of regional financing multilaterally, the support of industrial projects with European funds, which remain unmobilized, and some pending issues of the central government with the Galicians, such as the transfer of coastal powers, the transfer and free access to the AP-9 or the southern exit of Vigo. Many of these were already discussed at the meeting two years ago.
Although he called him a week in advance and had to cancel an institutional trip to Brazil due to a coincidence of dates, Rueda always defended that This is a “priority” appointment that he has been waiting for for more than five months. At that time, Sánchez met with the Lehendakari and the president of the Generalitat of Catalonia, although the latter took office later than their Galician counterpart. The spokesman for the Popular Group, Alberto Pazos, called this an example of the central government’s “contempt” for Galicia and the Galicians. However, Sánchez will finally receive Rueda this Friday at 12:30 at the Moncloa Palace, after meeting with the Basque president at 10:00. Later, in accordance with the statutory order, he will meet with the Andalusian president Juanma Dark.
The proposal of topics to be discussed at the meeting does not contain any surprises, and they are all “known” topics, as Rueda assured this Monday. The need to reform the regional financing system is the first point on the agenda. As he has already repeated on several occasions, the president of the Xunta has no intention of negotiating bilaterally the financing of Galicia. In fact, he should urge the President to convene the Conference of Presidents, because he believes that this issue should be addressed multilaterally with all regional leaders.
This decision has earned him much criticism from the opposition, both nationalists and socialists. “Servility towards Genoa” and “defense of the interests of the PP” against those of the Galicians have been the most repeated ideas, accusing the president of a kind of selfishness towards his community in favor of his party due, among other things, to his willingness to reject the cancellation of the debt if it were proposed. A solution of “Catalan independence” that does not suit the Galician executive, as indicated by presidential sources consulted by this media, and which would not solve the deficit of 600 million euros that the Community experiences per year due to the current financing system“We have other more pressing investment problems, such as adequately recognizing in the new model the weight of the aging of the population and its dispersion” in the cost of services, the same sources explain.
The second question that Rueda will ask the President of the Government will be the state of the situation. infrastructure concerning motorways and railway links. Among them, the southern exit of Vigo, the high speed with Portugal, the transfer and free access to the AP-9, the strengthening of the North-West Atlantic corridor or the electrical planning. In addition, it will be a question of promoting industrial projects, such as that of Altri, relying above all on European funds, which remain unmobilized; as well as the transfer of coastal management skills and other priority issues for Galicia, such as public health, the dependency system, housing policy, the promotion of primary sectors or Xacobeo 2027.
Many of these problems are pending since the meeting two years ago. These “bad results” mean that this time the party is showing its “skepticism” and “pessimism” about expectations, as predicted this week by the spokesman for the Popular Group, Alberto Pazos. The general secretary of the Popular Galicians, Paula Prado, said more harshly on Thursday that “there is so much contempt and failures of Sánchez with Galicia that President Rueda is going to have to make an effort of understanding to be able to summarize them.” to the president of the government and even then, he would not have received everything on Friday.
