A socialist president, the Asturian Adrián Barbón, has been the one who has marked his own profile most clearly as a result of the open debate on the unique financing for Catalonia, agreed between PSC and ERC in exchange for the investiture of Salvador Illa, in the second round of meetings that Pedro Sánchez began last week with the regional presidents at the Palacio de La Moncloa. And the PP was represented this Friday by the president of Cantabria, María José Sáenz de Buruaga, and Gonzalo Capellán from Rioja, who has not even raised the issue with the President of the Government.
The PSOE baron, on the other hand, has given Sánchez a copy of the agreement on regional financing that the General Assembly of Asturias approved last term with the support of all the parties with parliamentary representation except Vox. The common position was that the future autonomous model, which should have been renewed in 2014, does not harm the interests of the Principality and applies criteria based on the real cost of providing public services, taking into account issues such as orography, aging of the population, its dispersion or health spending. “It is logical that it defends the position of Asturias in terms of financing and [el presidente del Gobierno] He understands it perfectly, as it could not be otherwise. Discomfort, none. Furthermore, Asturias’ position is not against anyone, it is in defense of the interest of Asturias, which is what I owe as president,” Barbón defended, after the meeting, in which Sánchez has not developed a proposal for the system of financing.
“The position of Asturias defined in that document is expressed in that I will always defend the interests of Asturias as it cannot be otherwise, and I will not support anything that could be contrary to, harm or harm the interests of Asturias,” Barbón, who did not attend the federal committee of the PSOE in which Sánchez and the main leaders of the PSOE addressed behind closed doors the concern that the PSC and ERC agreement had generated, elaborated. The appointment was on September 7 and Barbón justified his absence because it was the eve of Asturias Day.
“I have delivered the document because I like to be clear and loyal, both with the General Meeting of the Principality and, therefore, with Asturias, and with the President of the Government himself. It is a position that all communities should take, defining their position on the reform of the financing system,” continued the Asturian president, one of the four that the PSOE has – Illa joined Barbón, Page and the Navarrese María Chivite – and who in August already stressed her rejection of Catalonia ceasing to be part of the common regime communities (all except Euskadi and Navarra). “The guarantee that has been given to me is that the system will be reformed by providing more resources to the communities,” he said. The Government maintains that all communities will have more income, without going into further details. “There is a fundamental premise, all communities will receive more income, it is the clearest commitment,” stressed the Minister of Territorial Policy, Ángel Víctor Torres, on behalf of the Government.
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The general secretary of the Asturian socialists, one of Sánchez’s mainstays when he resigned as leader of the PSOE in 2016, has thus monopolized all the limelight in La Moncloa although carefully avoiding going into a direct clash with the Government like his colleague party, the president of Castilla-La Mancha Emiliano García-Page, in a very delicate matter for the PSOE federations. “There are some debates here that are very territorial. With the delivery of this document, what I am doing is saying that this is the position of Asturias and this position is what we want to negotiate about. When the Government presents a proposal, we will negotiate defending the interests of Asturias,” insisted Barbón, who regretted the lack of specificity on the part of the PP communities when proposing a financing system. The reason is that the needs and interests are different: Madrid wants the number of inhabitants to prevail, Galicia and Castilla y León depopulation and the Balearic Islands the floating population, thinking about the tourist season and its impact on public services. “This is about being proactive and positively saying what position you defend. I believe that the improvement of regional financing must also be linked to the improvement of public services, because this is not about improving the contributions made to the autonomous communities so that later, in turn, there are autonomous communities that do so. used for the privatization of public services”, has criticized the reductions to the richest incomes that Madrid and other territories practice. “How can you hesitate to come and meet with the president of Spain, even if it is to disagree? The president is of the same political sign as me, but if he were of a different political sign he would be the same,” he has thrown a dart at the Madrid president, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, who has not yet clarified whether she will attend La Moncloa.
Conference of Presidents, in December
Barbón has also been categorical that the negotiation of the financing model must be “multilateral” and carried out in the Fiscal and Financial Policy Council and he does not see the point in including it on the agenda at the Conference of Presidents as required by the PP. The conclave will be held at the beginning of December in Cantabria and La Moncloa wants it to be dedicated to housing, although the PP, by governing in 12 communities plus the cities of Ceuta and Melilla, could force its incorporation to the agenda.
Sánchez’s round this Friday started with two popular barons, the president of Cantabria and that of La Rioja, who in both cases have highlighted the “cordiality” and “institutional normality” of their meetings. From then on, their visions have been totally different. Sáenz de Buruaga has asked the President of the Government to withdraw “the separatist concert and to nip the fiscal independence of Catalonia in the bud.” “You cannot leave the common regime. I refuse to let the Cantabrians pay a single euro of the bills of President Sánchez and the president “Illa,” he concluded. Sánchez has committed to the president to be personally involved in the development of the new Santander logistics center.
He has also done so with the transfer of the Glosas Emilianenses, which contain the first words written in Spanish and have been in the Royal Academy of History in Madrid since 1851, for an exhibition in the Yuso Monastery, in San Millán de la Cogolla, in 2016. “I do not come as president of the PP, I come as president of the people of Rioja to defend the interests of my land. My assessment of the meeting is positive, the president listened to me and we spoke for more than an hour,” highlighted the head of the Executive of La Rioja.
Sánchez’s round will resume next Friday, with appointments that, in principle, are preceded by more tension. That day he will receive the presidents of the PP Carlos Mazón (Valencian Community) and Fernando López Miras (Murcia) and Emiliano García-Page, the socialist leader who has most harshly criticized the pact with ERC. The three communities are, along with Andalusia, the most affected by the current financing system. Just the opposite of Cantabria and La Rioja, which have not made any objection to the current model and are the ones that receive the most resources.
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