As the twelfth bell rings and we officially enter 2024, system regional financing expired for ten years. Although it is much more than the anniversary, it is the context of state policy that gives rise to demands for reform and demands for its absence. “Privileged treatment of some regions over others” end-of-year speeches by the regional presidents of both the PP and PSOE, pointing to the central government and its agreements with the Catalan independence parties.
“There is no room for the absence of solidarity or inequality”, “We cannot consent to preferential treatment of some regions over others” or “We will not tolerate the breakdown of equality between regions and citizens” Some of the interventions that helped the regional presidents deliver the last speech of the year were flooded. In some cases, financing was explicitly mentioned; In others, something more general happened, but This change will be the central topic of discussion in the coming months.
It will not be easy to reach an agreement, there are intersecting and even conflicting interests depending on the regions (something independent of the party leading the executive), but I agree that if the presidents who talk about the distribution of resources among the autonomies have something to say, it is a call to prevent “inequality” by taking care of Catalonia. Most of them didn’t need to say that. Knowing that calls for “equality” or avoiding “privileges” are directed at this autonomy’s relations with the central government.
Especially days before (December 26, five days before the last regional presidents) the head of government, Father Aragonés, In his Christmas speech he claimed 2024 was the year to reach an agreement on “funding” [de Cataluña] This “singular financing” creates the paradox that it complicates an agreement between the PP and PSOE, but also agrees on the rejection of the remaining territories of the general regime. popular or run by socialists.
“Harmonizing centralism”
“In no case will we allow the shameful agreements made by the central government with the independence movement to reduce us Aragonese to the status of second-class Spaniards,” the Aragonese president said. Jorge Azcón, In his speech, he pointed out that “fair new regional financing is essential.” “We will not tolerate any disruption of equality between regions and citizens,” said the president of the Region of Murcia. Fernando López Heritage, and from the PP, which sees financing reform as an “inexcusable necessity”.
Same line for two other popular presidents. “We cannot consent to preferential treatment of some regions over others,” Juanma Moreno Bonilla, president of Andalusia, one of the autonomous regions most affected by the current distribution system, said in his Christmas speech. Prohens vowed to demand “fair financing” and fiscal autonomy for the islands before the central government, but in his own case he charged against the Sánchez administration’s “attempts to harmonize centralism.”
The message from all of them is similar to the message sent by the president of Consel. Carlos MazónOn the 30th he made his first end-of-year speech as president of the Generalitat. On this issue, Mazón promised to demand from the Valencian Community “rejected” things such as regional funding, which he wanted to “avoid having first- and second-class citizens”, free from “unilateralism and selfishness”. Mazón, who proposed meetings with neighboring autonomies, excluded the Catalan president from these meetings, ensuring that he had “little in common” with Pere Aragonés.
socialist barons
The majority of the autonomies are now governed by the PP, but the socialist barons who continue to lead them also see the change in model as one of the sensitive issues that they reflect in their speeches. The person who emphasized this most was Asturias president Adrián Barbón, who assured that there was no room for “lack of solidarity or inequality” in the “debt write-off option” or financing reform. this is currently being implemented.” pose.” “Unity and equality are great goals protected by the Constitution, and I will defend them,” said Castilla-La Mancha president Emiliano García-Page.
These speeches were the closing of the year but served as a beginning for the future. These include conflicting demands about what the future model should be like. Mediterranean regions such as the Valencian Community, Murcia and Andalusia request that the distribution be weighted according to population, while others such as Asturias, Galicia or Castilla-La Mancha want the distribution model to focus on the cost of the service, with adjustments such as: As the aging or dispersion of the population. But they are all united in rejecting the “privileges” granted to Catalonia.
Vice-president and Minister of Finance María Jesús Montero, on the other hand, showed her intention to start working to reach an agreement with the PP, but blamed the leader of this party, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, for a “lack of leadership” within his party to “promote a single position on regional financing.” This Meanwhile, Mazón, López Miras and Moreno Bonilla are preparing for a summit between the three regions, where they invite Castilla-La Mancha to apply pressure.