The communities will not vote on the new regional financing model until September

MadridThe autonomous communities will not discuss and vote on the new regional financing model until September 4. This is the new date set by the Ministry of Finance to hold the Council of Fiscal and Financial Policy (CPFF) that was scheduled for this Wednesday. The Spanish government has decided to postpone the meeting with the regional governments where the model reform was to be debated, precisely, after the PP communities requested more time to study the proposal, which they have rejected so far.

"The Ministry of Finance has been offering dialogue channels with the autonomous communities for some time to address the reform of the financing model. Last June, it called on them to hold technical meetings to analyze the reform in detail," recall from the Ministry of Finance. However, the PP regional governments closed the door to holding these bilateral meetings.

The autonomies governed by the Popular Party, but also those of the PSOE that are part of the common regime, have rejected from the first minute the proposal that the Spanish government has put on the table and that the Ministry of Finance and ERC negotiated. Only the government of the Canary Islands, of Coalición Canaria and the PP, has changed its position in recent days: this Monday, and after a meeting between the Canary Islands government and the Ministry of Finance, Fernando Clavijo's government announced its support for the proposal. For this reason, sources from the portfolio led by Arcadi España see it as "surprising" that now, just after the Canary Islands have announced their favorable vote, some communities are demanding to postpone a CPFF that was announced at the beginning of the month. "In any case, the Treasury will not close the door to dialogue and accepts the request," defend the same sources, who assure that the decision to postpone the conclave is a reflection of the Spanish government's "good will" to reach a consensus.

The Minister of Finance has recalled that the proposal will allow the autonomous communities to have an additional 20,975 million euros and, therefore, "more capacity to improve the public services that citizens receive".

The one who did not like the Ministry of Finance's decision is precisely ERC. "We are late," denounced the party leader, Oriol Junqueras, through his profile on the social network X. "We have been waiting for a new financing model for 13 years. Catalonia cannot continue trapped in a 2009 system," he said. ERC and the Spanish government tied this reform of the financing model within the framework of the negotiation to invest Salvador Illa as president of the Generalitat.

Homework for after the summer

With this Tuesday's move, the Spanish government will have to face, upon returning from summer holidays, not only the debate with the communities about the reform of the financing model, but also the debate with political parties to move forward with a new package of housing measures. This week, Pedro Sánchez's executive has also decided to postpone a new housing decree until September after being unable to build consensus with the parties that were part of the investiture bloc, and therefore, secure votes for a vote in Congress. Once again, Sánchez has run into the balancing acts he must perform in the face of demands from Podemos and Junts, which are often contradictory.