The meeting between the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, and the President of the Andalusian Government, Juanma Moreno, is conditioned by the limits imposed on the conversation: both the PP and the Andalusian Government have rejected any bilateral agreement in terms of financing or in areas that affect more than one autonomous community. The approach is therefore one of dialogue and institutional loyalty, but without leading to concrete progress.
Faced with this position, the general secretary of the PSOE-A, Juan Espadas, urged the Andalusian president to change pace and show his willingness to reach an agreement because there is room for improvement in financing and self-government“We ask you to attend this meeting with a spirit of agreement, and not simply to complain or ask what you think about Catalonia. Dialogue is fundamental,” said the socialist leader in his interview on Canal Sur, who called for not falling into confrontation.
In terms of financing, Juan Espadas stressed that, whatever the situation, PSC and ERC for Cataloniathe agreement reached in 2018 in Parliament to request a funding model by adjusted population more in line with the needs of public services in Andalusia. For this reason, he stressed that the meeting is an “opportunity” to make progress that particularly benefits underfunded communities such as Andalusia.
Secondly, the PSOE-A Secretary General stressed that measures can be taken in terms of autonomy given the margin that exists in the Statute of Autonomy until reaching the same levels as other territories such as Catalonia, since both statutes share a similar approach.Andalusia does not exercise its powers “to the maximum ceiling by decision of the Andalusian Government,” said Espadas, who cited as an example the case of the powers regarding Cercanías that Catalonia claimed but not Andalusia. “The more powers, the more funds there are to exercise them,” he stressed.
Finally, as a third axis, Espadas stressed the need to avoid tax competition between the autonomies, an approach that was present in the unanimous agreement of the Andalusian Parliament in 2018 and that, in the opinion of the PSOE, it has broken with the fiscal measures adopted in recent years by communities such as Madrid or Andalusia. “We cannot give tax gifts to the richest that amount to 1 billion euros per year and then ask for more funding from the State,” he concluded.
