The agreement between the PSC and the ERC has generated a rift between Sumar’s parties this summer. There are issues that complicate the consensus within the left-wing coalition and that require a constant effort of dialogue between all its sensibilities, as happened in the past with the debate on prostitution. After the turbulence of August, the groups most critical of the concert in Catalonia have lowered their tone in recent weeks to prevent the divergences on this issue from generating an image of disunity in public opinion.
Compromís and Chunta Aragonesista were the first groups to announce that they would not vote for any reform in Congress that did not also include better funding for the Comunitat Valenciana and Aragon, respectively. Izquierda Unida expressed its reservations in a statement from the executive in which it rejects the signed principle of “ordinanality”, which establishes that this community cannot contribute more resources to the State than it receives from this administration.
And later, even the economic spokesman of the Sumar Movement and deputy of the Plurinational Group in Congress, Carlos Martín Urriza, showed his discomfort in a column published in this newspaper, in which he warned that this criterion of ordinality, transferred to individuals, “would mean that the rich should be the ones who receive the most public services, when they are the ones who contribute the most.”
The executive of Yolanda Díaz’s party, however, approved, against the advice of its economic representative, a resolution that celebrated the agreement reached in Catalonia for the investiture of Salvador Illa and valued the contribution of the municipalities to “open a new political scene focused on social policies – with access to housing and social rights as a fundamental axis – and green policies.
Jéssica Albiach’s party also strongly defended the agreement and Més per Mallorca, a sovereignist party from the Balearic Islands, joined the Catalans in defending the agreement for Catalonia.
The positions for and against showed a division in Sumar that compromised the future approval in Congress of an agreement like the one signed between the PSC and the ERC, so the parliamentary group agreed to establish dialogue mechanisms to work on a common position.
As the weeks went by and once the activity in Congress was reactivated, Sumar’s parties, especially those most critical of the agreement or of a reform that does not include their territories, lowered the tone of their interventions. This does not mean that the divergences have disappeared or that the coalition has found a consensual position.
Different sources from the group specify that there is a general agreement to try to focus not on the divergences but on the positions on regional financing on which there is agreement. An example is the cancellation of the debt of all the autonomous communities, a point that Izquierda Unida had defended, as reflected in a document approved by the federal commission.
“The reform proposal [del sistema de financiación autonómica] “The UI must necessarily go through the following phases: 1. A conditional reduction plan for the debt that most communities have to the State. 2. A tax reform to achieve equitable regional financing. 3. Guarantee an adequate base of public services to all inhabitants of all territories,” the document states.
In one of the first press conferences in Congress after the summer recess, Compromís’ tone, for example, was softer. “The agreement that the government signed a year ago with Compromís must be respected and is not incompatible with respecting the government’s agreement with ERC,” said its spokesperson, Àgueda Micó.
In parallel with the activity of the parliamentary group, the Sumar parties worked this summer on a document for the negotiation of the general state budgets with the PSOE. This text partly addresses regional financing with a proposal on the restructuring of the debt of the communities.
The agreement provides for Airef to carry out a detailed study of the financing deficits of the autonomies. “Once these deficits have been calculated, the government will activate the corresponding compensation mechanisms provided for in the organic law on financing of the autonomous communities,” the proposal states.
Compromís is very satisfied with this formulation, which, he says, is similar to what they themselves presented in the Just Tract Law in Les Corts Valencianes, which in turn includes the demands of the Platform but of Just Financing and social agents.
This search for consensus has also been attempted within the group, as was seen last week in the defense of the position on an initiative in plenary in this regard, in which Micó intervened precisely and not a group more inclined to consult in Catalonia in the terms signed in August.
There are still disagreements regarding funding, but the issue has been addressed in the various group meetings in a more or less superficial manner. According to various sources, the position of the plurinational space on this issue has not been specifically worked on, among other things because there is still time for this debate to fully reach the Congress through a concrete initiative. The Sumar Movement has created a specific working group on the subject that has not yet delivered its conclusions to the rest of the coalition parties.
