There has been no option, at least for the moment, to open a gap between the leading PP barons who have met with Pedro Sánchez. Neither the president of the Xunta de Galicia, Alfonso Rueda, nor the president of the Junta de Andalucía, Juan Manuel Moreno, in their meetings held this Friday in La Moncloa have received from the head of the Executive any offer regarding financing aimed at their autonomous communities. The absence of such an offer has made it easier for the popular leaders not to break the agreement sealed at the Popular Party summit held two weeks ago in Madrid. A document in which they committed themselves, under the gaze of Alberto Núñez Feijóo, not to negotiate bilaterally singular models for their autonomous communities. Nor have they spoken about possible debt forgiveness, a possibility denied in turn by order of the leader of the PP.
Both barons have even expressed surprise that Sánchez has not tried to make them take the bait by putting a check on the table. And they have left the meetings cold, with the feeling that the president was only looking for his photo parading through La Moncloa. “I have not seen any proposals to divide anyone here either, there has been nothing beyond dialogue. Nothing that is profitable for our territories,” said the president of the Junta de Andalucía, Juan Manuel Moreno. “If we negotiate in some bilateral way the financing, even if it were a threat, no, because I do not believe that it is a solution,” explained Rueda, the first of the two presidents of the PP to meet with the head of the Executive after the Basque lehendakari, Imanol Pradales.
The meetings, both lasting around an hour and a half, have dealt with a long list of demands that both Rueda and Moreno have conveyed to Sánchez, focused mainly on infrastructure and public services in their communities. But also the express request – and in a face-to-face manner – that the Government “cut off at the root” the singular financing promised for Catalonia and that it urgently address, at a multilateral table, the reform of the autonomous financing system, which has been out of date for ten years, and increase the transfers to the territories. The PP presidents request the convening of the Conference of Presidents for this purpose, but Sánchez has indicated that, although its celebration is “imminent”, it will focus on housing. Both Rueda and Moreno have insisted on incorporating financing into the agenda.
The problem for the Government is that the regulations of the Conference of Presidents establish in its article 5.1 that the agenda “will be set by the preparatory committee with the approval of its President” —in this case the Minister of Territorial Policy, Ángel Víctor Torres— “and of ten autonomous communities or cities with a Statute of Autonomy” —the number that the PP has. “He told me that the conference would be about housing and I told him that it was essential that it also cover financing,” Rueda said. “It would not be acceptable for the agenda to be imposed, it would create tension on the part of the Government in a constitutional body,” Moreno warned. “I do not want to think that the Government does not include financing in the agenda,” the President of the Junta stressed. “We will scrupulously comply with the regulations. No initiative is vetoed here. “Whatever is likely to be included in the agenda will be included, without a doubt,” Minister Torres responded in a subsequent appearance, in which he announced that the preparatory committee for the Conference of Presidents, where the agenda is to be established, will take place in October.
In response to the PP presidents’ intention to take the reform of the model to the Conference of Presidents, Sánchez has indicated that the forum to discuss the updating of the system is the Council of Fiscal and Financial Policy. An extreme that Minister Torres has also reiterated in a press conference after Moreno’s appearance. However, even in that eventual scenario, Sánchez has pointed out to Rueda that it is “very difficult” to reach a consensus between all the territories due to their different singularities and claims. “He told me that he saw it as very difficult to reach agreements on financing,” the Galician president has assured in that line. “I am clear about what Galicia needs in terms of financing. And I will discuss it with Mazón [presidente de la Comunidad Valenciana] And with the rest, of course we have our own needs, but it is impossible that one day we will have that financing if we start to discuss separately,” Rueda added.
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Beyond the demands, both leaders have complained that Sánchez has only listened to them, responded with “nice words”, noting their requests, but without reaching “concrete commitments”. At the same time, they have acknowledged that Sánchez has not set any “traps” for them, as the president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, had warned, whose attendance at La Moncloa remains in the air. “In my opinion, when a president of the Government calls you, you have to answer his call,” Moreno said. “Although I do not vote for him, it is clear that he is the president of the country, it is true that one can come out frustrated [de la reunión”, ha finalizado.
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