The president of Aragon, Jorge Azcón, has opened the parliamentary session of his community by reaching out and seeking an agreement with all parties to defend regional financing that does not harm the community. This includes, according to the popular party’s words in Parliament this Thursday, “defending bilateralism with all the consequences established by all the articles of the Statute of Autonomy”, but without “falling into any trap” or going after “any carrot”. For his part, the president of Castilla-La Mancha, the socialist Emiliano García-Page, has urged the PP to give its approval to the spending ceiling approved by the Government to avoid budget cuts in social spending items.
The aforementioned bilaterality is included in several articles of the basic Aragonese law, but especially 108, which includes the negotiation of a two-party economic and financial agreement between Aragon and the State. But bilaterality, Azcón believes, is not singularity nor is it rejecting the framework of the Fiscal and Financial Policy Council. This is, as he pointed out on Thursday, “the trap” that, in his opinion, the Government is setting. As is, in his opinion, accepting the “carrot” that implies negotiating outside the “framework of all”. In this context, the president has asked for consensus with all political forces to show that in Aragon we are working together.
According to his government’s calculations, which Azcón presented on Thursday, the community would stop receiving “233 million euros” if Sánchez’s singular financing agreement with Catalonia with Esquerra goes through. An amount that the president has explained by resorting to comparisons: “It would mean 5,000 fewer teachers, or all the interest on the debt, or the total cost of private education or more than half of what doctors earn in this community.” And he finished by assuring that “there is no community under financial attack like Aragon,” where, several political forces in the Chamber have recalled, it is very expensive to assume public services because it is a depopulated, extensive and ageing territory.
Azcón has criticised, “as unconstitutional”, the proposal of the Government of Spain for the financing of Catalonia, which he considers a “covert reform of the Magna Carta to convert the country into a federal State”, but he has not drawn blood with a PSOE that, in Aragon, is going through a moment of internal division between “lambanistas” – the supporters of the former regional president Javier Lambán, very critical of the amnesty and measures achieved by the Government with ERC – and those close to Ferraz, and throughout his speech he has maintained a conciliatory tone, as has that of the rest of the political forces. The discordant note has been set by Vox and its deputy – and former regional vice president – Alejandro Nolasco who have broken the climate of dialogue by insulting the president of the Government, whom he has described as a “psychopath” for “trying to ruin Spain”. Warned, Nolasco has not wanted to withdraw the qualification, but none of the other forces have entered into the fray.
“I am aware that we are capable of reaching an agreement that can be unanimous,” Azcón has defended, who will also bet, as he has announced, on reaching agreements with other regions. “The strategy of alliances with other communities with similar characteristics, similar singularities to those of Aragon, reinforces success in future negotiations,” he has affirmed. The popular party is opening up to a strategy that was already started by his predecessor and current regional general secretary, Lambán, who signed two declarations to this end.
What matters most is what happens closer to home. To make sure you don’t miss anything, subscribe.
KEEP READING
Previously, the president of Aragon will soon begin the round of contacts with all the parties to specify and materialize a possible agreement, he assured. The Aragonese PSOE has chosen in this first session of Parliament after the summer break to underline what is common: “We defend a financing that allows to provide services with quality and dignity,” said the socialist spokesperson Mayte Pérez, who asked Azcón “not to fall into partisanship.” “We all have our contradictions,” said Pérez, in a veiled allusion to the week of tension that Aragonese socialism is experiencing after the Huesca federation criticized the socialist regional secretary, Lambán, last Saturday for airing his criticism of Pedro Sánchez. Azcón has not referred to the difficulties within the PSOE.
The rest of the parties have taken up the challenge, with their nuances. While the Aragonese CHA and PAR asked Azcón to demand bilaterality, Teruel Existe demanded the historical rights of Aragon and “not conform with corrections of cents” demanding “the singularities of the community”, or IU “giving a national response that guarantees public services”.
Spending ceiling
Also on Thursday, the president of Castilla-La Mancha, the socialist Emiliano García-Page, asked the PP to be “far-sighted” and approve the spending ceiling – which sets how much the State’s disbursements can rise – to avoid “social cuts” in the autonomous communities and local councils.
The president of Castilla-La Mancha has insisted that it is necessary for the PP to support the spending ceiling if it does not want to cause damage to social policies in the communities and municipalities. “We need them not to put a tampon in our hands, for there not to be a plug in Madrid for social policies in the autonomous regions. If the PP does not support the spending ceiling, it is leading to social cuts in the autonomous regions and municipalities,” said García-Page, although he clarified that, “whatever happens” and “whether or not there is a State Budget,” he is committed to ensuring that in his region “essential public services will not suffer,” to which, he said, it allocates “80% of real spending,” which goes to health, education and social spending. The Government approved this Tuesday the fiscal path that sets the deficit and debt objectives for the Administration and this spending ceiling, a prior step to the design of next year’s Accounts.
#Azcón #calls #consensus #among #parties #Aragon #negotiate #regional #financing #State