The PSOE held its Federal Committee this Saturday, where officially convened the party’s federal congress at the end of November which will trigger changes in territorial leadership. As expected, the most critical of the single financing agreement for Catalonia, led by Emiliano García-Page, Javier Lambán, have expressed their rejection and they raised their voices to the head of the Executive, Pedro Sánchez, about the concert itself.
On the one hand, the president of Castilla-La Mancha assured that the agreement with the ERC “is much more selfish than socialist” and “frankly, incomprehensible and indefensible”. With the same harshness, the secretary general of the Aragonese PSOE spoke out, affirming that the Catalan singular financing is “unconstitutional in the rules” and represents a decisive change that “attacks” the Magna Carta and “a cohesive and united Spain”.
Critical voices within the PSOE had already warned before entering the Federal Committee because García-Page, upon his arrival, had maintained that “everyone is against it and wants him not to govern.” Vox and the PP”, “But it is not a blank check to be able to play with the values and principles of the PSOE.”“It’s not at any price” said.
The Extremaduran socialists have joined the criticism in recent days, highlighting the figure of Miguel Ángel Gallardo, general secretary of the PSOE in Extremadura. Gallardo showed “the same concern“that the rest of the critics among those who are Aragon, Asturias, Andalusia, Madrid and Castile-La Manchabeing the discordants in the socialist score who categorically reject the pact between the PSC and the ERC.
The most energetic, García-Page and Lambán
The most energetic were García-Page and Lambán, who made their opposition clear from the moment they entered: “As an Aragonese, as a citizen and as a socialist I am radically opposed“. Both have asked to reconsider and avoid the preferential treatment that they consider granted to Catalonia. The Aragonese, on the one hand, have assured that it is unprecedented in the world that a country can function normally when its government ceases to have a fiscal control of 28% of the GDP, since Catalonia “would become similar, like two peas in a pod”, to the economic agreement of the Basque Country and Navarre and would have its own Treasury.
“If Madrid decided to do this, the other communities would have to take boats and go directly to Mauritania“, Lambán joked, while the man from La Mancha stressed that “this document presented by ERC is much more selfish than socialist.”
Other socialist leaders have not been as direct and, despite their concern, have measured their words more. This is the case of Juan Espadas, general secretary of the PSOE in Andalusia, who assured that “the final financing solution“It must be a solution for everyone, not just for a few.” In the same spirit, Luis Tudanca, general secretary of the PSOE of Castilla y León, defended a “multilateral reform of the financing system.” “Yes, it’s true, of course, we will support it, otherwise no,” he stressed.
For his part, the secretary general of the PSOE in Madrid, Juan Lobato, in a more conciliatory tone, is “sure that an agreement will be found” on financing. “The proposal is legitimate to make from Catalonia, but don’t lock yourself away alone“, he insisted, defending that “this does not break Spain, but that it has possibilities for improvement.” “This must include social justice. I trust in the consensus and I have proposed to attend the presentation to work on the realization of a model that adapts,” he indicated.
What everyone has agreed to support is a solution that involves dialogue that does not discriminate against other territories and this recognizes the singularities of each of them. But they also asked that the agreement document be shown, including Lobato, and García-Page went further by calling it an “independence coupon”, as the PP did this Friday.
The agreement document
“I still haven’t seen a signed document, and if they give it to me, since I think I can read at 56, I don’t need them to give me terminological explanations to know if that’s right.”…I know it’s the independence coupon or the independence coupon and “I know what that reflects, what Esquerra says,” said the president of La Mancha.
While Lambán expressed confidence that the agreement between the CPS and the ERC does not ultimately succeed, not so much because the partners of the Executive Pedro Sánchez to back down, but because “the PSOE and the government are reconsidering.” He insisted that the single financing of Catalonia would be “the absolute failure of Spanish fiscal sovereignty” and would lead the Generalitat to receive 30 billion more, so that the rest of the autonomous communities would be “forced to lower the quality of their services.” “or increase your taxes.”
