“The Catalan quota is an attack on municipalism.” The mayor of Valencia, María José Catalá, raised this Wednesday in Madrid the voice for local government and the damage caused by favorable government treatment Catalonia.
Catalá described the reform of local financing as “urgent”, which according to him is “threatened” by the Catalan concert agreed by the socialists with the separatists of the ERC.
For the mayor of Valencia, the current system of local financing is “perverse” and already leaves “crumbs” to municipalities of all political stripes. The outlook is even worse, since the calculations of the Town Hall of the capital of Turia indicate a loss of ten percent of the revenues of the Catalan share, derived from the transfer of personal income tax provided for in the agreement between the PSOE and the separatists.
In this regard, Catalá warned that he would lead the initiatives of municipalism to defend the “attack” represented by the “Catalan quota”. It is for this reason that he urged the President of the Government, Pedro Sanchezto establish a dialogue with the Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces.
However, he will consider appealing the Catalan quota before Constitutional Court and bring it before him Council of Europe. In this regard, he said that he had already addressed the issue with Almeida and that he hoped that more mayors “of all political persuasions” would join him.
For Catalanthe “time has come for Sánchez to tell us what he has planned.” Now he warned that “as we already know, they will understand that I am not going to sit still while they deal this blow to us”, since “we, the mayors, are obliged to stop it”.
It is for this reason that he announced that “if the Catalan quota materializes, we will bring a conflict before the Constitutional Court for the Defense of Local Autonomy to contest it and defend the financing of the municipalities.”
Furthermore, “we will ask Council of Europe and, more particularly, to the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe which is investigating the Spanish government for violation of Article 4.6 and Art 9.6 of the European Charter of Local Self-Government, which demands that businesses are consulted in a timely and appropriate manner. . appropriate manner of all matters that concern them and, above all, those related to resources.
As she had already argued in an interview with ABC, the mayor of Valencia insisted on the need for reform of the system Local Treasury Law: “We cannot get caught up in fierce competition for funding.” In this regard, he called for “dialogue and co-governance”.
The leader of the Popular Party gave a conference organized by New Economy Forum in which he presented his policy on taxation, housing and sustainability, the year Valencia became the European Green Capital.
The mayor of Spain’s third capital was introduced by her Madrid counterpart, José Luis Martinez-Almeidawhich hosted a forum bringing together political and civil society representatives from the two cities.
Catalá, questioned about the risk of breaking the government pact in the municipal council with Voicesaid she wasn’t worried and put the city “above everything else.”
The mayor of Valencia also addressed the housing problem and described the policies undertaken by the government to limit rent prices as a “failure” and distanced herself from the “example of Barcelona” in terms of Pedro Sanchez. The capital of Turia, he announced, will encourage the construction of social housing.
Likewise, regarding the appeal presented by the socialists against the acquittal of Francisco Camps In one of the elements of the Gürtel affair, Catalá denounced the fact that PSPV-PSOE “resorts to the old strategy of judicial persecution of PP accusations.” According to him, a measure has failed and this affects polarization: “The mud of politics distances us from citizens”.
Catalá also had words of remembrance for the deceased Rita Barbera: “She deserved all the honors we gave her, she was a woman who broke the beaten path for twenty-four years as mayor of Valencia and I am proud of her legacy.”
