The political debate around single funding for Catalonia has put another question on the table: the needs of the rest of the Autonomous Communities. The opposition accuses the government of having concluded an agreement which benefits Catalans fiscally and which has negative repercussions on public services in the rest of the territories.
But what does each territory really need? The CIS recently published its annual study on Public opinion and fiscal policy in which he addresses this question. Citizens are asked if they believe that too many resources, necessary or not enough, are allocated to different public services.
Citizens who consider that very few resources are devoted to a service detect a deficit. On the one hand, there is global data for the entire country and, on the other hand, each territory has its particularities. In the Community of MadridFor example, the largest deficit is devoted to accommodation. In CataloniaOn the other hand, housing is the third and there reigns the deficit of health care.
Juan Bravoeconomic spokesperson of the PP, showed last Thursday and very clearly how the debate on public services is on the table. During his confrontation at the Congress of Deputies with the first vice-president, Maria Jesus Monteroaccused the government of creating “first-class supporters of independence and second-class Spaniards.”
He also declared that “there will be fewer doctors in Seville, but more pro-independence embassies; fewer teachers in Jaén, but more advisors in the government of Salvador Illa.” In his speech, Bravo points out a few keys… but let’s really see what the biggest deficits are.
Win the house
According to the CIS study, 80.1% of Spaniards consider that housing receives very few resources. This is the public service in which citizens perceive the greatest deficit in the whole of Spain. Several Autonomous Communities coincide there: it is the winning deficit in the Balearic Islands, the Canary Islands, Castile-La Mancha, Galicia and the Community of Madrid.
The case of Madrid is also striking. In this territory, 84% of citizens notice a deficit. This is 3.9 percentage points above the Spanish average, indicating that this issue has more impact in the community chaired by Isabel Diaz Ayuso.
With this data in hand, it is no coincidence that housing has become one of the big political debates of this week. María Jesús Montero already declared on Thursday that “it will be the housing legislature” and the minister of the sector, Isabelle Rodriguezaccused several Autonomous Communities of being “rebellious” to the housing law.
The central government accuses the territories of not declaring stressed areas, a preliminary step to capping rents, and the main protagonist in this debate is precisely the Community of Madrid. The Executive also threatened not to provide funds to communities that do not meet standards.
Apart from territories where greater underfinancing is detected, housing is the second most deficit public service for communities such as Andalusia, Aragon, Valencian Community, Extremadura, Murcia and the Basque Country.
Research and health
The second public service in which citizens are demanding more funding is scientific and technological research. 79.9% of the Spanish population thinks so. This variable, however, should not respond to the fact that citizens notice gaps in their daily lives, but rather to the idea that Spain invests less in R&D than other European Union countries.
What affects everyday life is the health care. 76.9% of Spaniards consider that very little is invested in this area, making it the third public service in which the greatest deficit is detected.
The autonomous communities in which the greatest number of citizens report this underfinancing are Andalusia, Catalonia and Navarre. It is also the second in Asturias, Cantabria and La Rioja. In the case of Catalonia, however, it is not the service that deviates furthest from the Spanish average, it is transport that gains, with 13.8 percentage points above.
Healthcare is also the area where dissatisfaction has increased the most compared to 2023 (as we have already explained in this article). The CIS study also asks whether citizens consider that public services are provided satisfactorily and 48.9% of Spaniards believe that health care is little or not at all satisfactory, which is 8.2 points more than what they thought in 2023 and more than double what they thought in 2020 (23.1 points). %).
