A lamentable spectacle by the PP at the Council of Fiscal and Financial Policy
The PP Finance Ministers have put on a lamentable show this Wednesday at the Fiscal and Financial Policy Council: they have stood up from their chairs and have refused to participate in the debate and vote on an initiative, the partial forgiveness of debt, which benefits all the autonomous communities. The reason is not the measure itself, but rather that it is a proposal included in the investiture pact of Pedro Sánchez signed between ERC and PSOE. The message they launched after leaving the room was that they do not want to pick up "the springs of Sánchez's pact with the independentists", thus returning to the old anti-Catalan rhetoric of the PP. On this point it is necessary to make some considerations.
The first is that whenever the Spanish government has had to implement some improvement in the financing of the autonomous communities, whether with a new financing system or with measures such as debt forgiveness, it has been thanks to the pressure of the Catalan groups in Congress. This was the case in the financing agreements between CiU and the PSOE in 1993, between CiU and the PP in 1996 and 2001, between the tripartite government and the PSOE in 2009, and now between ERC and the PSOE. Neither the PP nor the PSOE have ever taken any steps in this matter on their own initiative. And Catalonia has always, always been the driving force and, at the same time, the bearer of the blows. In fact, the inaction of the PP and PSOE is such that the financing system has been out of date since 2014, with neither party having taken any serious steps to approve a new one in the last decade. Only after the investiture agreement of Salvador Illa between ERC and the PSC has a profound reform of the system been put on the table, which should begin to take place on Friday with the meeting of the Joint Committee on Economic and Social Affairs of the State-Generalitat.
The second consideration is that the PP has committed a serious lack of institutional respect by getting up from the chair of a multilateral regional participation body, which is exactly what they criticised about the independence movement. And, furthermore, they have gotten up even before the debate began. If they do not agree on something, what they should do is explain their reasons, one by one, and then vote against it, but it gives the impression that they wanted to avoid the ordeal of voting against a measure that benefits them by not having to give explanations to their respective public opinions. However, they have preferred to avoid the debate and blame Catalonia for all the ills, as is tradition in the PP.
Finally, it must be made clear that the debt forgiveness is just at the beginning of its journey. Now there must be bilateral meetings with all the autonomous regions and then negotiations with the groups in Congress, which is the one that must approve a specific law, which is not expected to happen until the end of the year. The Spanish government does seem to have a majority secured, especially after Carles Puigdemont confirmed that Junts is in favour of debt forgiveness, even if only partially. Then it will be the moment of truth for the PP's autonomous regions, which will have to decide whether to accept it or not.
