This Wednesday, the government had a new opportunity to explain the financing agreement concluded with ERC, but it was wrong once again. The First Vice-President of the Government, Maria Jesus Monterodid not want to specify whether it was a concert and left the question open to interpretation.
During the government control session at the Congress of Deputies, the spokesperson of the Junts, Miriam Noguerasasked the Minister of Finance to explain whether “this agreement is a concert like the one in the Basque Country.” “You can read the agreement for yourself and interpret the issues raised there,” Montero replied.
“Like all those who have been interested, they have been able to read the agreement that is signed. It is curious that an agreement for the first time public between two parties generates the need for so many explanations on the part of the different actors,” Montero added, without really explaining anything other than “it will be good” for Spain as a whole.
This Wednesday, the first session of government control is held in Congress since the return of summer. This was celebrated with the president, Pedro SanchezAbsent from the House due to his trip to China, much of the burden fell on his two government and party members and he had to talk about funding, an issue that was not discussed until the summer, when it was less so.
“On July 30, he said there would be no separatist concert or bilateral negotiations. On August 10, he defended the concert and that it should be extended to everyone. Later, he said there was no concert, given the unrest that had been generated. When did the law come?” asked the PP’s economic spokesman, Juan Bravo.
Montero did not answer this question either. The agreement with ERC to invest Salvador Illa as president of the Generalitat is becoming difficult for the government to manage. Not only the autonomous communities governed by the PP, which tried last Friday to propose an alternative, have been criticized, but also the communities governed by the PSOE such as Asturias or Castilla-La Mancha.
In addition, Sánchez also criticized the party barons who, even if they do not govern, maintain the territorial power of the different socialist federations. This situation generates an internal gap even greater than that generated by the amnesty after 23-J.
The Secretary General of the PP, Cuca Gamarracalled the agreement a “coupon” and said that “it is financed by the teachers of the Andalusians, the doctors of Extremadura, the transport of the inhabitants of La Mancha, the dependence of the Asturians” and others to guarantee “the seats” of the Government.
The former spokesperson also recalled Montero’s own words when she said in 2016 about funding that all communities should “drink from the same source and eat from the same cake.”
And while regional financing occupied a large part of the debate, it was not the only economic issue that Montero had to address. The Council of Ministers approved on Tuesday the so-called spending ceiling and the stability, deficit and debt targets to work on the 2025 budgets.
This is the same spending ceiling that Congress had already rejected before the summer, but Montero issued a veiled threat to those who did not support it. “If the PP and any other group vote against this path, they will impose an adjustment of 6.6 billion in two years on the autonomous communities and 4.950 million in two years on local entities, a total of 11.550 million,” he said. Tuesday at the press conference after the Council of Ministers.
In the PP, these words hurt and Juan Bravo asked Montero “This does not threaten the presidents of the Autonomous Communities”“A minister convinces, not threatens,” he reproached.
