Ayuso remains alone boycotting the Fiscal and Financial Policy Council

MadridThe Community of Madrid called for a "boycott" of the Fiscal and Financial Policy Council to prevent the approval this Friday of the financing model, which will now begin its journey in the Council of Ministers and the Congress of Deputies. If the PP communities followed her and stood up the appointment, the meeting could not be held due to a lack of quorum, and they would veto the approval of the system. However, this has not been the case: the popular barons have not followed Isabel Díaz Ayuso, and Madrid has remained alone in being absent from the meeting, since the rest of the regional Ministers of Finance, despite the fact that they will vote 'no' to the financing system, are indeed at the meeting. That is to say, there is only one empty chair at the table presided over by the Minister of Finance, Arcadi España, with all the representatives of the autonomous communities, including Catalonia, this Friday in Madrid. Only the head of the Madrid treasury, Rocío Albert López-Ibor, is missing.

How have the PP autonomous communities justified their decision to attend the meeting? Before entering the Fiscal Policy Council, which is being held in the facilities on Paseo de la Castellana of the Ministry of Finance, they had already said that they would attend the appointment and that, however it is expressed, the underlying message is the same. "We all oppose the system," each of the councilors who stopped to make statements has been repeating. "We express respect for the Community of Madrid," said the head of Finance of Murcia, Luis Alberto Marín. "The position is the same, but we express it in a different way," added the representative of Galicia, Miguel Corgos. "We believe that there is freedom for all communities to decide [...]. We understood that we had to come here to explain why we were voting no," said the Andalusian Carolina España. Everyone, mind you, has expressed rejection of a new model that they consider is only made to guarantee the "survival" of Pedro Sánchez.

Be that as it may, with this movement, the PP communities allow de facto the financing to be approved, because in reality, they all gain more resources even if they do not agree with the criteria and politically show fierce opposition to it. In fact, the one that ends up worse off with the model is the Community of Madrid, which is penalized for massively lowering its own taxes, a fiscal dumping that both Esquerra and the PSOE have conspired to limit by taking advantage of the new financing reform.

The negotiation in Congress

The system is expected to go ahead at the meeting of the Fiscal and Financial Policy Council with the votes of the State, the Generalitat, and also the Canary Islands, which reached an 'in extremis' agreement with the Treasury. The Minister of Economy and Finance of the Generalitat, Alícia Romero, in statements to the media, has expressed her satisfaction with the new model, which she has ensured "respects ordinality" and Catalonia comes out a winner with additional funding of 4.7 billion euros. The Generalitat's thesis is that the system benefits all autonomous communities because they gain more resources and the funding gap between them is reduced; a view not shared by either the PP autonomous communities or those governed by the PSOE, which also oppose the model. In fact, Castilla-La Mancha and Asturias will say 'no' today, aligning themselves with all the PP autonomous communities.

For its part, the Ministry of Finance is attending the meeting with a "constructive spirit" and a willingness for "dialogue" to reform a system that, they recall, has been expired since 2014 and that no Spanish government has dared to reform until now. Regarding the absence of the Community of Madrid, sources from the ministry remark that they already postponed the meeting of the Fiscal Policy Council in favor of dialogue at the end of July and that throughout the summer, the Ministry of Finance's intent has been to negotiate. "They have not accepted any of our proposals," complain, however, the PP and PSOE communities, which see that the system is already closed by the pact between the PSOE and Esquerra.

Be that as it may, the Ministry of Finance does assure that during the processing of the law in the Congress of Deputies, they are willing to change issues of the model. They have no other option: even if it is approved this Friday at the Fiscal and Financial Policy Council, it must then be approved in the Council of Ministers (in ten or fifteen days, according to sources) and then the processing in the Congress of Deputies must begin. At this point, the government and Esquerra will need the support of Junts, which until now has shown itself to be against the agreed system because it believes it is insufficient.

Minister Romero has asked Carles Puigdemont's party this Friday to sit down and negotiate, since Catalonia would come out a winner —she said—, and at least not "block" its processing in Congress. Junts sources clarify that their position requires that the financing model pass the first step in the Spanish chamber (they would present their own amendment to the entirety that would not prosper), but that if the "economic agreement" —that the Generalitat can collect all taxes— is not incorporated during the processing, their vote will be against it in the final vote. Esquerra has spent months negotiating the delegation of income tax (IRPF) collection with the Ministry of Finance, but until now the ministry has resisted accepting it, despite the fact that it was a 'sine qua non' condition for the investiture of Salvador Illa.