We are embarking on a new political path with major challenges and some outstanding questions. Like the necessary reform of the regional financing system, a debate postponed for ten years due to lack of political consensus.
Our country must evolve towards a new model that takes into account the singularities of the different territories, according to the principles of solidarity and equity, so that no community is harmed. This is where the government of Pedro Sánchez is.
This is not the case of the main opposition party, which insists on using this issue to do what it prefers: to confront and divide. But to do so, it must harm the interests of the autonomous communities it governs.
At this point, there is no doubt that the Popular Party is using Catalonia as a “weapon” against the government to win votes in other territories. This is not new. In recent years, we have gone from the ever-recurring “Spain is breaking up” to the more recent “Spain and its territorial model are at a crossroads”, as highlighted in the manifesto signed by the regional presidents of the PP. In between, you know, countless apocalyptic prophecies that the country’s own reality is responsible for the dismantling. One by one.
But beyond this slogan policy or the “worse is better” practiced by Feijóo’s Popular Party, there is no doubt that Spain faces the challenge of renewing a clearly obsolete regional financing system. And where many of us see the opportunity to reach great agreements, others see the way to continue the confrontation.
So what is your proposal? If we look at the aforementioned manifesto, the answer seems clear: the PP defends “a model of solidarity, equality and negotiation between all.”
Solidarity, equality and negotiation. Let’s go part by part.
The Popular Party speaks of solidarity between communities when, in those where it governs, it lowers taxes on large assets, harming the financing of public services and promoting competition or dumping fiscal with the rest of the autonomies, as happens in the Community of Madrid.
This curious concept of “solidarity” is the same one that the people seem to apply every time they vote against the measures promoted by the government in favor of the social majority and to promote equality among Spaniards, wherever they live.
It is enough to recall his refusal to support the revaluation of pensions, the increase in the minimum interprofessional wage (SMI) or the reductions in public transport, to name just a few examples.
They also did not hesitate to veto in the Senate the spending ceiling proposed by the government for the autonomous communities and municipalities, knowing that this would mean an economic reduction of 4.5 billion euros for these public administrations.
And while the PP tries to put spokes in the wheels, the Sánchez government focuses its efforts on transferring to all the autonomous communities (all of them, without exception) the most important economic resources in their history: 300 billion euros more than under Mariano Rajoy.
Thus, in this way of doing politics of the Popular Party of Feijóo, we find no trace of that solidarity and equality that it proclaims so much.
Nor do we see examples of his ardent defense of negotiation, given the blockade to which he has subjected the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) over the last five years and his clear intention to also block any possibility of improving the autonomous financing model.
The main opposition party seems to resist major agreements that support the country’s democratic progress. But in the end, reality always prevails.
This happened with the pact that allowed the return of institutional normality to the governing body of judges and it will also happen with the new regional financing model.
Despite the noise, the manipulations… and the directives of a certain popular leader who feels more comfortable in the mud than in dialogue.
But who gives us back lost time?
