Carles Puigdemont will try to continue taking advantage of Pedro Sánchez’s parliamentary weakness, forcing the President of the Government to assume a distribution of the tax margin adapted to Catalonia. Junts proposes to the Executive that the new path of stability – which they continue to negotiate with Moncloa – includes a system of sharing the capacity to spend until 2027 based on the criterion of the weight of wealth that each region contributes to the GDP of the Statewhich would generate an unequal distribution between regions. “If Catalonia represents 20% of Spanish GDP, the distribution must be equitable,” revealed the spokesperson for the postconverged to Congress, Miriam Nogeras, last Thursday in statements to FTE.
The unequal distribution approach is this technically possibleas confirmed elEconomista.es with sources from the Ministry of Finance who recognize, however, that “this would mean that some Autonomous Communities would have a more demanding objective and others less, in order to reach the overall figure”. In other words, for communities with higher GDP to obtain greater spending room, others – those with lower GDP – will have to bear the full brunt of the budgetary effort to achieve the common objective that the Government sets on the path to stability. In this way – and in accordance with the demands of Junts – Madrid, Catalonia, Andalusia and the Valencian Community will have higher deficit limits, to the detriment of Cantabria, Asturias, Extremadura or La Rioja, which will have to balance their accounts. a much narrower margin, or even being forced to respect the parliamentary balance or surplus. Junts thus supports the agreement signed between the PSC and the ERC, takes the lead in the search for a privileged agreement for Catalonia and presents itself as the “useful” link between the government and the Catalan independence movement.
However, it seems very difficult for the Treasury to accept the agreement that Puigdemont put on the table in exchange for approving the fiscal trajectory and unblocking the budget project process. The political attrition that Sánchez’s people suffered after assuming the single financing for Catalonia agreed with the ERC, and which aroused the anger of the rest of the regional presidents – including the socialists – closes the door to a possible distribution adapted to tax requirements. margin that benefits the richest regions and harms the poorest regions.
Negotiation is not easy. The changes in the Junts proposal, which initially proposed extending the deficit limit for the autonomous communities from 0.1% to 0.8%, have slowed down discussions to close a definitive path, which the economy should include in the fiscal plan four-annual structural plan which he agreed to send tomorrow to Brussels. Little is known about its contents. “In a few days, the Spanish government will have to present a structural budget plan, about which we know nothing,” declared AIReF president Cristina Herrero, who warned that it would be “impossible” for Spain not to not respect European rules, without the discipline of the LACC. Of course, those from Carlos Corp will only include unbudgeted economic measures in the document they will send to the European Commission. “As long as we do not have the draft budget on the table, we will not present the budgetary plan,” admitted the head of the Economy last Tuesday.
Once the procedure is completed and the future path of stability approved, the Executive will have to face the task of promoting the Accounts. The Ministry of Finance appears determined to do so. Moncloa has already awarded the contract for digital printing, binding and USB engraving services for publications related to the Budget project, with a value of more than 18,300 euros. However, Montero is in no hurry. The head of the Executive already announced a few weeks ago that he would not start the parliamentary process before ERC and Junts organize the congresses during which they will define their strategy. Both will take place at the end of October and November respectively. In fact, the president of the PNV, Txaso Atutxa, recognized last Wednesday that the contacts initiated by the Government with the rest of the parliamentary groups had been interrupted. Only negotiations with Sumar are moving forward.
