The People’s Party begins the month of September by taking a photo of the manifesto signed by the eleven popular presidents of the autonomous communities they govern. This Friday, the people of Feijóo will demonstrate their territorial power with a family photo that is intended to be an image of strength in which the popular will show a united front on the issue of regional financing.
This Monday, the deputy secretary for the economy of the People’s Party, Juan Bravoseemed to make virtue a necessity and spoke on what was the point to be discussed in the first steering committee of the political course. Bravo assures that the government has decided to impose bilaterality on a “multilateral” problem, the issue of regional financing, since the granting of tax privileges to Catalonia to the detriment of other underfunded communities is a decision that “the PSOE and the ERC but it affects all Spaniards. Something that has raised blisters among the socialist barons themselves, to whom the PP appeals to end the Catalan quotas, “as they did in Aragon”, says the deputy secretary.
Sánchez’s new concession to the independence movement is a tribute, says Bravo, that the executive is willing to pay to “stay in Moncloa.” This will be the point that will be discussed at this alternative conference of presidents that the PP proposes for this Friday, since the President of the Government has not yet convened this conclave with all the leaders of the autonomous communities, something that the PP demands. for several months to deal with them. two key themes with those facing the new political direction, regional funding and immigration.
At Friday’s meeting, the Popular Party is expected to approve the manifesto signed last week and address the challenges posed by the current financing system, but party sources assure that under no circumstances will it put it on the table. a concrete reform plansince they consider that these functions correspond to the government, especially to the Minister of Finance María Jesús Montero. “When Feijóo is president, from the first day we will have a plan on the table,” say these same sources.
Another issue to address in terms of tax benefits for the most popular will be the partial debt forgiveness of the Autonomous Liquidity Fund (FLA) for Catalonia. A debt that the Government has promised to alleviate this community and that the central executive of the PP considers something unacceptable. When the deputy secretary is specifically asked if there is a possibility that a regional president of the PP will try to negotiate with the government this same privilege, citing reasons of underfunding, the deputy secretary assures that no, since all the presidents understand that the cancellation of the debt alone is a patch for a major problem which is the creation of a new regional financing model.
So, from Genoa, they deny this scenario and it does not seem that any regional president will take his foot off the gas on Friday regarding the cancellation of the debt. Despite these statements, Alberto Núñez Feijóo himself assured this morning on the OndaCero program ‘Más de Uno’ that he was not “a leader within the Popular Party”, which does not completely clarify whether it is possible for a president, like the Valencian Carlos Mazón, to pursue this request with the central government.
The consequences of a reform of the Organic Law on Autonomous Financing (LOFCA) for the creation of the Catalan concert What this could have in the rest of Spain at the moment is not clear, but the popular have decided to quantify the cost that this could have for the rest of the communities. The Undersecretary of Economy of the PP said that the realization of said measure would mean a loss of up to 13 billion euros in purchasing power for the autonomous communities. “If we talk about health care, there are 150,000 fewer doctors and 25 fewer ultramodern hospitals every year. If we talk about education, there are 260,000 fewer teachers,” says Bravo.
A “firm position” on immigration
Other non-minor issues were addressed by the party’s spokesman, Borja Sémper, who, when asked about the party position Regarding the migratory phenomenon, which seems to be confronted internally – as is the case of the mayor of Badalona Xavier Albiol – the spokesperson assures that the PP has a “firm position”. It is, according to Sémper, a “humane” treatment of migrants, regular and orderly immigration and a plan to face “the migratory crisis”. A speech that is similar to that given by the President of the Government himself during his recent tour of the African continent. But despite apparently tight positions, Sémper assures that without understanding on the part of the Executive, there will be no reform of the immigration law.
The PP’s position on immigration is precisely what led it to distance itself from Santiago Abascal’s party, which assured this Monday that “the immigration policies of the PP and the PSOE are suicides.” Statements that do not arouse fear in Génova 13, even though Santiago Abascal has threatened not to support the people in any territory if its position on immigration does not change. The party spokesman assures that they have assumed that, for both the PSOE and Vox, “the enemy to defeat is the Popular Party.” “We are only against this government,” assured Sémper.
