At the meeting of males The PP's usual reaction this Sunday is to light one or more candles to some saint they're devoted to, hoping that Junts will derail the financing agreement between the PSOE and ERC. Because if, for some reason, it were to be approved and implemented next year, it would also set off a ticking time bomb for Alberto Núñez Feijóo. Let's see why.

This week we will continue discussing funding, because on Wednesday Spanish Vice President Montero will present the model agreed upon with Esquerra Republicana in all the autonomous communities. It will be a formality, because the Spanish government holds a majority in this meeting.

Here are 10 concrete points to consider regarding funding:

The regional financing agreement was signed by the PSOE, a party in crisis, and ERC, a party recovering (at least). Interestingly, sometimes a sum of weaknesses yields better results than a sum of strengths. It is not generosity, but necessity, that has allowed them to agree on a series of things that, just a year ago, Minister Montero considered impossible and unconstitutional. Ordinality ad hoc For Catalonia, the extra contribution from the State so that what some gain doesn't cost others, the oxymoron of plural singularity... and what ERC still hopes to obtain: comprehensive management of personal income tax and an investment consortium that retains in Catalonia all the funds not spent in the budget. It's a promising list, but it falls short of what the PSC agreed to in order to secure the votes to invest Isla, and furthermore, the path now beginning will be a true ordeal: Pedro Sánchez will have to defend that agreement against Junts, perhaps against Podemos, against the PP and Vox, against his own party. malesAnd it will do so without María Jesús Montero, offered up as a sacrifice on the altar of the Andalusian elections. We'll see what's left of it all. The clock is ticking.

Visibly pleased with the regional financing proposal presented by Spanish Vice President María Jesús Montero, but aware that it's impossible to obtain 100% of what they want, the Catalan Minister of Economy, Alícia Romero (Caldes d'Estrac, 1976), received ARA at the Palau de la Generalitat, convinced that Catalonia will succeed. She also stated that she doesn't see it as impossible for the proposal to go ahead.

The president of ERC, Oriol Junqueras, is boasting about the agreement reached on the new financing model, emphasizing that no other Catalan government has ever achieved such high levels of economic sovereignty.

Here are some preliminary conclusions about the financing agreement that Pedro Sánchez and Oriol Junqueras finally reached yesterday at Moncloa Palace. To begin with, no, this is not the economic agreement for Catalonia. Catalonia does not, for the time being, collect taxes and then pay the State for services provided in our country, and it does not make any solidarity contributions, as is the case with the Basque Country and Navarre. Not only is it not an agreement, but it is not a special system for Catalonia. What Sánchez and Junqueras agreed to yesterday falls squarely into that rather creative expression of a "generalizable special system." In other words, yesterday Sánchez and Junqueras agreed on a new financing system for all the autonomous communities under the common regime, including Catalonia, of course. You will see it more clearly on the front page ofThe Country:

The agreement for the new financing with the Spanish government that Oriol Junqueras has announced This has provoked rejection from both the PP and Junts, as well as from sectors of the PSOE critical of Pedro Sánchez. According to the PP, what the head of the government did in the meeting with the leader of ERC at the Moncloa Palace was to "kneel" and "bury what should be sacred in our country: equality and solidarity among all the autonomous communities." This statement was first made by PP leader Elías Bendodo at a party event in Málaga this Thursday and reinforced in a message to his party leader, Alberto Núñez Feijóo. "Moncloa cannot be a pawn shop," he emphasized. The PP leadership maintains that regional financing should be debated "among everyone" and through the "established channels," referring to the Conference of Presidents and the Fiscal and Financial Policy Council (CPFF), and hopes to achieve a reform later, "when Feijóo arrives at Moncloa."

The news of the day is the meeting between the Spanish president, Sánchez, and the leader of Esquerra, Junqueras.

Every negotiation regarding Catalonia's financing stems from the same deficiency: a structural problem is being discussed, the premises of which are circumstantial, depending on the political moment. The structural problem is, and always has been, the fiscal deficit carried and accumulated by the regions that contribute the most to the Spanish Treasury, such as Catalonia and the Balearic Islands (Madrid, as always, is an exception, and as always, manipulates its figures: the reality is that it contributes, but also receives much more than the others). The premises of the current moment are, above all, the need for Pedro Sánchez, the PSOE, and the Spanish government to reaffirm the majority that brought them to power, with the aim of getting through this new year and reaching the Generalitat, if not in July 2027, then as far ahead as possible. Then there are also the needs of the others: Salvador Illa's need to approve the Generalitat's budget; After two years of extending them, ERC's aim is to show itself as a demanding partner capable of securing good funding for Catalonia, even if it means applying the principle of ordinality without mentioning it in the text of the agreement; Junts' aim is to play the role of patriotic and inflexible negotiators who are not satisfied with anything (unless it suits Junts, of course).

Killing two birds with one stone. That's the metaphor that best defines what Thursday morning's meeting between the leader of ERC, Oriol Junqueras, and the Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, at La Moncloa Palace, meant. On the one hand, the approximately one-hour meeting served to seal the agreement for a new regional financing system that takes into account Catalonia's "uniqueness," as promised to the Republicans, and which would guarantee ordinality while also being applicable to the rest of the territories, as the Spanish government maintains. On the other hand, it is the first time Sánchez has opened the doors of La Moncloa to a top leader of the Catalan independence movement.after already meeting with Jordi Turull in June—, a gesture that adds to the "political normalization" that his government has long championed and that Its main pillar is the amnesty lawThe photo taken this Thursday of Junqueras and Sánchez shaking hands is, in fact, the political amnesty that the pro-independence movement, including Junts, has repeatedly demanded in parallel with legal amnesty.

The countdown to a new regional financing model is nearing its end. Both ERC and the Catalan government agree that the announcement of the agreement is "imminent," pending the meeting between Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and ERC leader Oriol Junqueras, scheduled for Thursday at Moncloa Palace, to break the deadlock in reaching an understanding. "There must be an agreement on Catalonia's financing this week," declared the Republican spokesperson, Isaac Albert, in an interview. The morning of Catalunya RàdioThe government is also optimistic about the outcome of the talks, without which the Republicans have been warning for months that they will not sit down with Salvador Illa's administration to negotiate the 2026 budget. However, the agreement will still have to overcome another obstacle that is already emerging: "Juntos has warned that it will not support voting for it in Congress."

First came the pardons, then the amnesty and the governance agreements with the Catalan independence movement, and now comes the third step in the political normalization of Spain: Pedro Sánchez is opening the doors of La Moncloa (the Prime Minister's official residence) to the leaders of the independence movement. The first to walk through them will be, next Thursday, the president of the ERC (Republican Left of Catalonia), Oriol Junqueras, in a symbolic image that will also serve to confirm the reinstatement of the Republican leader as a key interlocutor for the Spanish government. Junqueras, vice president of the government that led to the October 1st referendum and a political prisoner for almost four years, will gauge the impact of such a meeting in the Madrid media.

Most of the New Year's Eve speeches by regional presidents have had two main common denominators: housing and financing. In the first case, they have boasted about the measures they have implemented to address the primary concern of Spaniards. And in the second, they have criticized the proposed future model of regional financing. ERC and the PSOE are finalizingOne of the most significant voices has been that of Emiliano García-Page, the baron The socialist most critical of Pedro Sánchez. He has not uttered the words financing neither CataloniaBut everything was understood when he warned that he would stand up to it: "We will fight any kind of attempt at privileges that harm us."

After more than a year of negotiations between ERC and the PSOE (with the PSC caught in the middle), the moment of truth is approaching regarding Catalonia's special funding arrangements. This January, the Minister of Finance, María Jesús Montero, is scheduled to publish her proposed distribution of funds, an exercise that hasn't been undertaken in Spain since the last funding system was approved in 2009. The issue of personal income tax revenue will be addressed later, given that the current Catalan tax system is already underfunded. However, Montero must present figures, and the one of greatest interest in Catalonia is how much additional money the Generalitat (Catalan government) will receive to finance its responsibilities. But it will also be necessary to see how the other regions fare, especially the Community of Madrid, which benefits from the capital city effect and engages in highly unfair tax dumping compared to the rest of the country, as well as Andalusia, the most populous autonomous community.

I hope you're preparing for a very Merry Christmas. But before the good wishes, let's discuss a couple of things.

It has been difficult and The Minister of Economy herself acknowledged this a few months ago.But finally, the Catalan and national tax agencies, that is, the State Tax Administration Agency (AEAT) and the Catalan Tax Agency (ATC), have signed an agreement for the shared management of the special tax on certain means of transport (IEDMT) – the vehicle registration tax. This initiative was part of the steps towards the future management of personal income tax (IRPF) within the framework of the new financing system. which has also been delayed

For now, the only unusual thing about Catalonia's new and long-awaited regional funding is that it's probably languishing in limbo, and that's because of the Andalusian mammograms. It might be surprising, but it's true. Let me explain.

The far right presents an argument based on facts or general beliefs: housing is too expensive for most families, public authorities treat immigrants better than citizens, there is insecurity on the streets due to the high crime rate among immigrants, the EU is overly regulatory and costs us a lot of money. Simple, direct messages, with little nuance. Traditional parties, conservatives and social democrats, present arguments that are more ideological than factual. They don't contrast facts, but rather ideas. For many people, these ideas are far removed from what directly matters to them. Facts are immediate; ideas are less so because they are nuanced.

Negotiations between the Spanish government, the Catalan government (Generalitat), and the Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC) regarding a new financing model for Catalonia have been ongoing for weeks. If an agreement is reached, the Minister of Finance, María Jesús Montero, who is also the Socialist Party (PSOE) candidate for the regional elections in Andalusia, will have to explain it publicly. However, the person behind the scenes, negotiating on a daily basis for the Spanish state, is not Montero herself, but her right-hand man: the Secretary of State for Finance, Jesús Gascón Catalán. He is the one who has the details of all the financing models on the table; he is the one who understands the numbers and the... excellent and sits down face-to-face with the negotiators from the PSC and Esquerra.