The first meeting between President of the Government, Pedro Sánchezand the Valencian President Carlos Mazónrevealed once again its opposing positions regarding the agreement between the Socialists and the ERC for a single financing model for Catalonia, and with it to advance the demanded reform of regional financing. Despite this, Mazón assures that some agreements have been reached to move forward on other issues.
During his appearance after the meeting, Mazón made it clear that there had been no change in position regarding what was considered the Valencian Community’s biggest problem for years: the reform of the regional financing system . Thus, the popular assured that Sánchez told him that about the change of model “we’ll talk about it at everyone’s tablethat there will be a Conference of Presidents, I don’t know when, and the Fiscal and Financial Policy Council (CPFF), I don’t know when either.
Precisely, the PP baron defended that it should be in these forums with all the CCAAs involved where the negotiations take place. “at the same time and with everyone” THE three major issues that he considers priorities for Valencia. “The most serious is the system itself and its reform“, he emphasized. He then declared: “the leveling fund”an assertion that sharing with regions like Murcia and Andalusia and this in the Valencian case means the request for 1.780 million euros more per year due to current underfunding. And third, “a solution to exorbitant debt”.
The Valencian insisted that “we want to talk about the three things at the same time and at the table with everyone”, that is, in a multilateral way in relation to bilateral agreements with Catalonia or with each autonomy.
According to the president of the Generalitat Valenciana, who thus refuses to negotiate each of these issues separately, Sánchez did not present him with a specific offer of debt cancellation in the Valencian case, one of the formulas with which the socialists are trying to transfer the windfalls of the agreement with the separatists for other autonomy. In the case of Valencia, its debt is around 60 billion euros and is the largest of the autonomous communities in relation to GDP per capita.
The President of Government told him that the agreement with ERC for the single system of Catalonia “can be an opportunity”. A position to which the popular responded that “I think it is the worst opportunity for everyone” and declared that “this way it breaks”, in reference to the fact that it endangers the solidarity between the CCAA.
Agreements on other issues
After months of bitter confrontations between the Valencian government and that of the state on various issues, Mazón also said that during the meeting progress was made on several issues on which he believed there were agreements . Among them, he mentioned public funds to guarantee employment at the Ford plant in Almussafes, since it will not have a sufficient workload before 2027. In this line of collaboration, he also highlighted the progress made for Valencia to receive funds from Perte Chip, to promote the microconductor sector in the region.
Above all, he highlighted the agreement to create a technical commission to study the possible transfer of the Lady of Elche to this city, whether “temporarily or in the longer term”, an issue that has sparked controversy in Alicante since years.
He also believed that the way was open to resolve water supplies “to Lake La Albufera” with the arrival of the new hydrological year and that meetings will take place with the Ministry of Ecological Transition. In this sense, he asked to depoliticize and divert water with a new law that establishes that a technical commission will set the ecological flow rates of the Tajo-Segura transfer.
