Meeting cut short after five minutes: PP communities continue their fight against the FLA

MadridWhile they didn't even stay an hour at the Fiscal and Financial Policy Council (CPFF) meeting that was supposed to address debt forgiveness, some PP-led autonomous communities didn't even last five minutes at the technical meetings on this issue. Following the joint standoff a month and a half ago, the Ministry of Finance is calling the autonomous communities to bilateral technical meetings to address the issue.Where does the initiative for a pact between the PSOE and ERC come from?– was the first to be called, followed by Andalusia, the autonomous region for which the Spanish government is proposing to forgive the largest amount. However, the executive officials of the Popular Party leader Juanma Moreno spent only a few minutes meeting with those from the Ministry of Finance. The representatives of Andalusia immediately cut short the virtual meeting held at the end of March, saying – "very politely" – that they were not willing to address this issue because what they want is to talk about is reforming the regional financing system, sources from the Andalusian Ministry of Finance explained to ARA.

The Ministry of Finance also sent them documentation on the matter, but it hasn't even been considered. "Everything is at a standstill," say the same sources, who emphasize that, while they are keeping the already publicly expressed opposition private, other fronts such as Donald Trump's tariff war have been pushed down the list of priorities. However, the Ministry of Finance continues with its agenda of technical meetings and is summoning the autonomous regions that have yet to propose a waiver. The meeting with the Valencian Community took place this Thursday, but the region did attend, but maintained its refusal. "They received the same response as in the CPFF (Financial Commission of the Federation). That negotiations be multilateral and always linked to the reform of the financing system," sources from the Valencian Ministry of Finance told this newspaper. The Valencians took advantage of the meeting to "raise more urgent issues," such as demanding the pending update of payments on account.

Extremadura has scheduled the meeting for April 23rd, Galicia will also hold it after Easter, as will Madrid, which plans to hold it at the end of the month. "The position will be the same as in the CPFF," say sources from the Extremaduran Ministry of Finance. Isabel Díaz Ayuso's administration, one of the most belligerent against the measure, also advances that they will maintain the same position, although they are willing to meet. This is not the case with the government of the Balearic Islands, which directly refuses to meet with the ministry to "present scenarios" without yet having "something firm and approved." For the debt forgiveness to become effective, it must be developed in an organic law and approved by Congress, where support is not yet guaranteed.

"It is of no use to us to use the distribution of regional debt to avoid talking about financing, which is our priority," say the Galician executive, although they avoid advancing whether they will follow the steps of Andalusia – one of the most combative, in the middle of the electoral competition with Vice President María Jesús Montero– and they will also cut off the conversation without listening to the proposal of the Ministry of Finance technicians. Aragón, which has scheduled the conversation "soon," also refuses to give any details of its approach. The Aragonese president, Jorge Azcón, was one of the men The PP's most ambiguous views. Despite criticizing the measure, they refused to reject it outright until they had studied the "fine print." However, sources in Génova rule out any defections from the common position agreed upon by the Popular Regions. The PP leadership is not intervening in this phase—"they are autonomous," they say about the regional governments—but they emphasize that everyone is clear that, despite the differences in form, the bottom line is that there is a "univocal" position against the forgiveness, which "does not change."

The PSOE's autonomous regions

As for the autonomous regions governed by the PSOE, which are in the minority, the attitude is different. Asturias held the meeting at the end of March and "tried to take the first steps to identify transactions eligible for tax forgiveness." Sources from the Asturian Ministry of Finance explained to ARA that the intention is to maintain more contacts of this type to continue making progress. And in Castilla-La Mancha, despite being governed by the critic Emiliano García-Page, they are pleased with the portion of the tax forgiveness attributed to them ahead of a meeting they have not yet held.