Santi Rodríguez (PP): "Catalonia is not underfunded"

BarcelonaThe Secretary General of the PP in Catalonia, Santi Rodríguez, speaks to ARA during a week marked by several corruption cases involving the PSOE and the Spanish government.

What's happening in Madrid?

— In recent years, a series of cases have come to light that are intensely affecting the PSOE (Spanish Socialist Workers' Party), the government, and also the president's family. This is the end of an era. And it's paradoxical that in 2018 he came to power through a vote of no confidence, accusing Mariano Rajoy's government of corruption. There's only one way to end this: with the president's resignation and the calling of elections. Furthermore, there's the issue of sexual harassment. Didn't they claim to be the most feminist party?

Are all these cases inherent to the PSOE or are they systemic to Spanish democracy?

— The situation we find ourselves in now has never occurred under any active government in Spain.

In the words of the Spanish government, is this happening because there is a judicial branch trying to make it happen?

— Wow, the judicial power is huge, isn't it? Against the woman, against the brother, against the candidate in Extremadura, against the Attorney General, against Leire Díez, Koldo, Ábalos, Santos Cerdán... It can't be that everyone is conspiring against Pedro Sánchez.

—

The PP has managed to govern several autonomous communities with Vox's votes. Does this alliance hurt them?

— I suppose this makes the opposition easier. But we have our own political project, and we put it first. And the clearest example of this is Extremadura.

What are the PP's aspirations in Catalonia?

— Everyone chooses their own partners. And the PSC chose ERC and Comuns. This is a tripartite coalition 3.0. This legislature is heavily influenced by the Spanish legislature. Isla's investiture agreements with ERC consist of things that the Spanish government must do. If the Spanish government were to change, Isla would face many difficulties.

The PP has flirted with the concept of ordinality in the past. Could this be one of the points for reaching a financing agreement?

— Funding means that communities have the necessary resources to finance healthcare, education, and social services. While it may be desirable that the region that contributes the most should receive at least the same amount in the final distribution—a system based on ordinality—the primary objective must be to ensure that public services can be provided reliably to all communities, which is not the case under the current system.

The criticism from wealthy communities that contribute but then end up lower in the final distribution is that the best services are not being provided here either.

— Where you certainly won't find very good services is in the Valencian Community, Murcia, Andalusia, and Castilla-La Mancha, regions that are underfunded—a fact acknowledged by all studies. Catalonia is not one of the underfunded regions. It's at a balanced level.

It is many points lower on the ordinality axis.

— The Balearic Islands and Madrid are even more so. Ultimately, it's not what the territories contribute, it's what the people contribute. Catalonia is not an underfunded region. All the studies confirm this.

All?

— Those commissioned by the government, no. The Valencian Institute of Economic Research, Professor De la Fuente... Catalonia is the most indebted region, and it's not due to underfunding, but to decisions made by the Generalitat (Catalan government), such as the foreign delegations and TV3. In Catalonia, we have higher taxes than in any other region.

Regarding Catalan in Europe, why shouldn't it be an official language?

— Are you really worried about Catalan being spoken in Europe? It's not up to us, it's up to the member states.

Has the PP not worked against official status?

— No. But what worries me is that people aren't talking about it in the street.

And do you think that by eliminating language immersion, people will speak more?

— Catalan has become unpopular. Young people speak less Catalan than ever before because it's being imposed on them, and they are rebelling and are the first to stop speaking it. Therefore, we must implement a language policy that isn't based on imposition, punishment, and obligation.

Feijóo has yet to recover in Catalonia, at least according to the polls.

— We come from a situation where we were practically nonexistent. In the last election cycle, we managed to reposition the party significantly. Is that enough? No. Feijóo is the right person for Catalonia; he has championed autonomy and can easily connect with the majority sentiment.

The party should have already reformed its leadership in Catalonia. What's going on?

— We've gone from a situation of extreme weakness and have focused on rebuilding the party structure. It will come, nothing's wrong.

The president of the PP in Catalonia, Alejandro Fernández, has been involved in a back-and-forth with the national leadership and He wrote a book that Genoa didn't likeWhat do you think of that tension?

— With him, we've gone from a situation of extreme [electoral] weakness to a certain degree of normality. There are circumstances where contradictions might be perceived, but then we talk things out, reach agreements, and move forward. We've fared best when we've worked together.

One of Fernández's criticisms is the lack of autonomy of the Catalan leadership with respect to the Spanish one.

— It is true that the People's Party of Catalonia is part of the People's Party of Spain. And this obviously obliges us to maintain levels of consistency and relationships that other parties surely also have, but pretend not to.

Is Fernández the PP's candidate for the next Catalan elections? And in Barcelona, ​​what about Dani Sirera?

— Of course. Alejandro Fernández in Catalonia and Sirera in Barcelona.

Does the PP have a project that can accommodate ten million people in Catalonia?

— The political project model must respond to the needs of the inhabitants and citizens of our territory. And if we are to be ten million, then we will be ten million. But we wouldn't want them to be ten million like those who come from elsewhere and leave their children here to be taken in by the Generalitat through fraudulent means, or those who register their address in other people's homes to access healthcare. We want them to be ten million people committed to Catalonia, committed to work, and capable of building a Catalonia where no one tries to take advantage of the work of others.