The Popular Party came out this Thursday in a storm to criticize the agreement reached between PSOE and ERC that will allow the Catalan republics to support the investiture of Pedro Sánchez. The barons of the region but also Alberto Núñez Feijóo himself attacked the socialists for favoring, according to them, “inequality” between the territories, since one of the points of the agreement contemplated the forgiveness of the part of the debt contracted by Catalonia to the State.
Negotiations between PSOE and Junts are complicated on the amnesty perimeter
The text of the agreement actually states that this forgiveness is for all the autonomous communities with a common regime, that is, all except Euskadi and Navarra. Therefore, those territories managed by the PP will also benefit, whose leaders are quick to criticize this alleged lack of equality.
“We demand equality with the Spanish,” the president of the Andalusian government, Juan Manuel Moreno Bonilla, emphasized on the X network. “After the moral humiliation, Sánchez asked for an economic complaint, and Andalusia said no,” he said. The Andalusian president assured that “Sánchez has forgiven the independence movement 15,000 million euros in debt plus 1,300 million in interest.” And, next, Moreno asked the government for “17.8 billion euros, equivalent to the population of the transfer of Sánchez to the ERC and Junts.” Also “a compensation fund” that allows Andalusia to “recover the 15,000 million lost in Andalusia in the current financial system of the region.”
“We have made it clear that we will not allow further inequality and, if necessary, we will seek protection in the courts of justice,” they added, for their part, from the government of the Region of Murcia led by Fernando López Miras. In a statement, the regional executive criticized that the Region of Murcia is “the worst-financed community in Spain, and 80% of the current debt has the origin of underfinancing, as shown in various reports.”
“We cannot accept different treatment between citizens who should be equal or economic advantages that discriminate against other regions. “Enough of so much anger!” added the president of Cantabria, MarÃa José Sáenz de Buruaga.”Today, democracy is for sale. Sánchez is a danger for Spain. The silence of the PSOE makes the socialists of all communities independent,” said the president of Madrid, Isabel DÃaz Ayuso, in another tweet.
“Sánchez is ready to give everything to stay in power. €15,000 million from all Spaniards for the ERC votes in an investiture pact that provides amnesty and opens the door to a referendum in Catalonia,” said Feijóo himself “Money for votes. The worst thing is that no one knows the limits of their immorality,” he added.
In fact, the text of the agreement states the following and covers all communities: “To clean up the financial situation of the Generalitat and facilitate its return to financing the debt markets, a legal change of the general scope for all the autonomous communities of the common regime will be processed, allowing the acquisition of the state in part of its regional debt due to the negative impact of the economic cycle, where it is determined which part of the debt increase is due to the impact of the cycle, and the transfers can also be used to cancel the debt in the case of debt to third parties outside the State, if necessary.”
“The above,” added the agreement, “is understood without prejudice to the FLA, which can continue to operate as a system of last resort in critical market situations.” “This operation will include the acquisition of almost 20% of the outstanding debt during the implementation of this agreement, contracted by the Generalitat of Catalonia with the General Administration of the State’s liquidity mechanisms, and includes approximately 15,000 million euros in Catalonia’s debt, and that means saving around 1,300 million euros in interest,” he said.
In response to complaints from PP leaders, the acting Minister of the Presidency, Félix Bolaños, quickly explained that the debt forgiveness will affect all communities. “I have seen the regional presidents of the PP launch lies about the ERC agreement. I repeat what I said, which is in public agreement: the measure will be extended to all autonomous communities and will serve to facilitate their autonomy in finance. What is the shame of PP? If there is no lie, they do not exist,” he published in X.
The amount to be forgiven by each community will be determined in future regulations
The debt forgiveness of these communities is waiting to be completed in the future legal development, as included in the text sealed between the socialists and the republicans. The amount will be determined in future regulations, and the method is, as the negotiation sources explained, to analyze the impact of the indebtedness of the communities in the negative economic cycle created after the crisis of 2008 and the following years. In other words, each region has its own calculation.
These sources explain that they are analyzed case by case, and therefore the 20% of the Catalan case cannot be extrapolated at all because others have a greater or lesser effect on the forgiveness of debt. Different communities, such as Andalusia or Comunitat Valenciana, are also among the most indebted and will find relief through this system.
Most of the debts of the communities were created in 2012, when the Government of Rajoy used the system known as the Autonomous Liquidity Fund to guarantee the regions their financing due to the impossibility of going to the market to finance themselves. But not all of them resorted to this system. For example, the Community of Madrid does not benefit from this system. Negotiating sources consulted pointed out that ways will also be found for these regions to benefit.
In summary, there is a commitment that all regions can have formulas to reduce debt. However, the specific method to obtain the result for each region has not been determined.
