The tightrope-walking president who doesn't want to lose privileges
BarcelonaCastilla-La Mancha believes it is underfunded. The confrontation between the ever-controversial Emiliano García-Page and the new funding model proposed by his own party is one of the week's top headlines. baron On Wednesday, the Socialist Party leader took the liberty of citing a study by economist Ángel de la Fuente (Fedea) to try to lend a scientific veneer to his arguments against Catalonia's "privileges." What does this study actually say? Page merely presented a partial screenshot, showing how, under the new model, Catalonia would be the most benefited in relative terms, while Castile-La Mancha would lose ground. Let's examine the data to see if there's a hidden agenda.
According to the Fedea study, using 2023 as a baseline – the last year with finalized funding data – if the new model had been applied, Catalonia would have gained 500 euros per inhabitant and climbed in the regional ranking. In relative terms, it would have moved from eighth to third place in terms of adjusted population. which is the one used by the Ministry of Finance to distribute resourcesCastilla-La Mancha, meanwhile, would have dropped from twelfth to fourteenth place in the ranking. "The model favors Catalonia, and the underfunded regions will continue to be so," Page wrote to X.
The president of Castilla-La Mancha deliberately omits numerous facts that can be found in the same Fedea study. For example, that with the new model, Castilla-La Mancha would also have gained: 300 euros per inhabitant. In fact, the new model anticipates that, starting in 2027, the additional resources that would reach Castilla-La Mancha would amount to 1.248 billion euros. But, above all, what Page omits is that Castilla-La Mancha is one of the regions that has historically benefited most from funding models. It's not even necessary to leave the document Page was consulting to see the figures that prove this.
Applying the calculations of the new financing model – which still needs to be approved by Congress – according to Fedea, in 2023 Castilla-La Mancha would have gone from contributing €2,519 per adjusted inhabitant to the common fund through what are called homogeneous tax revenues to receiving €3,526 per inhabitant. And Catalonia? From contributing €4,082 per adjusted inhabitant, it would have ended up with €3,977. Castilla-La Mancha would have gained more than €1,000 per adjusted inhabitant, while Catalonia would have lost €100. Fedea also analyzes the impact of the current financing model, which has been in effect since 2009. In relative terms, for example, considering Community 1, it contributed 109% – third in the ranking – and received 102% – eighth. In contrast, Castilla-La Mancha contributed only 68% – only more than the Canary Islands and Extremadura – and ended up receiving 95%, slightly below the Spanish average. Page, however, wants more and aspires for Castilla-La Mancha to reach the Spanish average, arguing that this would balance the provision of services to all autonomous communities, regardless of their individual contributions.
Awaiting official data
Since the Ministry of Finance has not made its data publicAlthough the government defends the transparency of the model, it hasn't even sent the detailed data to the regional governments. The Fedea study is the only one that has shed any light on the matter so far. Minister María Jesús Montero explained on Wednesday that they will not provide rankings to compare the model's impact across regions and urged regional governments to consult their own experts to determine if it is in their best interest. For now, their proposal, agreed upon with the Catalan government and the Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC), has received a resounding "no" from the People's Party (PP)—which has openly criticized what Catalonia would receive—from Together for Catalonia (Junts)—which is only considering supporting the current economic agreement—and from the tightrope walker Emiliano García-Page, the president who can walk a tightrope without ever fearing a fall.
