Ayuso responds to Isla's criticism of Madrid's lack of solidarity: "We contribute 70% of the joint fund."

Madrid / BarcelonaSalvador Isla's criticism of "unfair competition and tax dumping in Madrid" in an interview in the ARA This has not pleased the PP nor the president of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso. In his opinion, it is the "reality" about his territory's contribution to inter-territorial solidarity: "The Community of Madrid contributes 80% of its revenue; 70%, in the common fund," he argued to X.

In the interview, Isla defended the need to prevent Madrid from becoming a country with low taxes. Furthermore, he demanded that the new financing system take into account this element of "capital" and that it put a fiscal floor on the regional governments, to avoid them "with one hand asking for more resources" and with the other lowering taxes for the richest, as has also happened in Andalusia. (for example, by eliminating the Inheritance or Wealth Tax) Meanwhile, he says, the Generalitat "fries the Catalans for their businesses at the expense of all Spaniards."

Both the Community of Madrid and Catalonia are among those most affected by the current system of regional financing.Madrid is the region that contributes the most and the eleventh in terms of resources per capita; Catalonia is the third in terms of contributions and the tenth in terms of receipts. Applying the principle of ordinality to distribution, as the PSC and ERC governments advocate for the new model, would benefit both, as it would mean they would not lose ground between what they contribute and what they receive.

A "joke"

Salvador Illa's words also received a response from the new PP spokesperson in Congress, Ester Muñoz, who considered the Socialist leader's "talking about unfair competition" to be a "joke." "What he wants is privileged financing, its own tax agency, and to break up the common fund," she accused him of via X. This criticism is not new. The PP is strongly opposed to new financing for Catalonia, and some of the autonomous communities it governs have already announced that, when it is finalized, they will go to court to prevent what they consider an attack on equality and solidarity among Spaniards.

The one who added a spoonful to the crossfire was the PSOE spokesperson and PSC deputy, Montse Mínguez: taking advantage of the fact that Muñoz replied to some statements by Isla in Catalan, she pointed out, in a message to X, that "it is not that difficult to maintain a bilingual conversation." "Tell Ayuso the trick next time, let's see if she doesn't get up and leave," she said. She was referring to to the boycott of the co-official languages of the Madrid president at the Conference of Presidents in Barcelona, where it originated when Catalan and Basque were spoken.

The rest of the PP's regions, far from complaining about what the Socialists denounce as Madrid's "fiscal dumping," have joined these tax cut policies and have replicated some in their own territories—with the disadvantage of not having the capital status effect—and in Génova they use the same argument. "Not even all the gold in the world would improve public services in Catalonia because the problem isn't funding, it's poor management," Muñoz stated in his message this Sunday.