The participation of the PSdeG yesterday in the Federal Committee of Ferraz expressed once again the discourse defended in recent months by the Galician socialists. Despite the fact that Galicia is one of the communities that benefits most from the common regime in terms of the money it receives and receives from the State and, therefore, one of the communities potentially most harmed by the possible exit of Catalonia from said regime, the situation is clear: support Pedro Sánchez and defend his agreement with the ERC.
“We remember when Feijóo said that we were going to hand over Catalonia to Puigdemont. Today, reality proves us right: we have managed to form a government that works for the interest of all citizens of Spain, maintaining the unity of the country and facing challenges with responsibility and dialogue,” said the leader of the PSG, Jose Ramon Gomez Besteiroin front of the socialist leadership in Madrid.
A speech that contrasts with that of other regional leaders whose territories, such as Galicia, depend on the financing mechanism which currently maintains contributions from the Community of Madrid, Catalonia and the Balearic Islands to assume its public policies. This is the case of Castile and León, Aragon or Asturias, also governed by the PSOE and which receive less than the Galician community, according to the latest data on the liquidation of the financing system of the autonomous communities of the common regime. Without these contributions, Galicia would have a gap of 2.987 million euros.
In his case, Besteiro chose to highlight the need for a “single financing model” for Galicia according to a “territorial justice“, a “fundamental” demand for the Galician socialists in the face of the “specific challenges“that Galicia is facing, “such as the aging of the population and the geographical dispersion” which, in the words of Besteiro, directly affect “the management of public services and which require differentiated treatment in the distribution of state resources.”
Some aspects, such as ageing or geographical dispersion, are already considered in Law 22/2009 of 18 December, which regulates the common regime of the regional financing system. This “singular financing” “à la Galicienne” therefore has little to do with that proposed by the Catalan independence parties or by the BNG.
While waiting to know the final text, which ends the dialectical battle between the Central Executive and the leaders of ERC and Junts, Esquerra’s leaks on the agreement and the clear imposition of the collection of all taxes in Catalonia, indicate that its objective involves leaving the common regime and becoming, with the Basque Country and Navarre, a the third regional community.
In this way, they would stop contributing to the Fundamental Fund for the Guarantee of Public Services -which finance Health, Education and social policies of Galicia and other dependent communities-, as well as the rest of the funds intended to distribute resources in a supportive and equitable manner between the territories to homogenize the wealth of the inhabitants, regardless of the region in which they live. All this in exchange for a quota that Catalonia would negotiate with the central government
The BNG “foral” model
While the PSGeG defends an improvement in benefits for Galicia within the common system, using the same terminology as Catalonia – singular financing -, despite the different meanings given by each other, from the BNG they defend the application in Galicia of the same model that the Catalan independence parties intend to apply.
A measure defended by both the leader of the nationalist formation, Ana Pontonas the bloc’s spokesperson in the Congress of Deputies, Nestor RegoAlthough Pedro Sánchez was in favor of the request of his investiture partners, the liquidation data of the financing system of the autonomous communities of the common regime show two very different realities between Catalonia and Galicia. The former contributed 2,088 million euros while the latter received 2,987 million euros, which would imply an imbalance in the public accounts of the Galician community.
