The Ministry of Finance has planned a reform of the regional financing system, which has expired since 2014, and which it intends to propose during this legislature if it ever starts. The agreement with ERC for the central administration to assume 20% of Catalonia's debt with the Autonomous Liquidity Fund (FLA) is the spearhead of the fiscal sudoku that aims to form the future government. The reduction will be extended to other autonomous communities using a calculation that the department headed by María Jesús Montero intends to translate into a bill if Sánchez's investiture goes ahead.
The PSOE set the approval of a new regional financing system as a priority in its electoral program. In the agreement with Sumar, the socialists went further and included an improvement in public resources for “the Generalitat Valenciana and the rest of the underfinanced autonomous communities” in the budgets if this reform could not become a reality. That is to say, despite the noise of the last few hours over the agreement with ERC, the Treasury roadmap is drawn up to, once the government is formed, convene a Fiscal and Financial Policy Council in which to move towards the complex agreement (not it was possible to address it in the last legislature).
Improving regional financing will allow several regional communities to face their financial obligations with the State under different conditions. In 2012, the central Administration launched extraordinary mechanisms that have allowed several governments to access cheaper financing and be able to pay their bills. In total, the State has distributed through these figures, especially the FLA, 383,645 million to the common regime communities. Catalonia has been the autonomy that has benefited the most from this aid. Specifically, it has received 129,450 million in advantageous loans until this year, of which it would have pending to return 73,110 million, according to official data from the Treasury and the State Bank (BdE) as of June. But it was not the only one. The Valencian Community has received 88,744 million and owes 48,344 million. Andalusia follows, with an aid of 51,223 million and obligations of 25,409 million. In total, the debt for these funds amounts to 191,750 million.
The Community of Madrid, for its part, decided not to join the FLA over the years, understanding that it could take advantage of its solvency to refinance its debt at a lower interest rate than that offered by the Treasury. Sources from the acting Ministry of Finance explain that the Government of Isabel Díaz Ayuso will be offered the possibility of receiving a transfer to repay debt with third parties. The total Madrid debt reaches 37,658 million as of June, according to the latest data from the BdE.
The decision to assume a part of the regional debt contracted as a result of the latest crises is, therefore, a first gesture by the acting Government in search of an agreement to put an end to the underfinancing that several autonomies have suffered for almost a decade. To these resources we must add the covid fund of 16,000 million approved during the pandemic, another 20,000 million in loans for sustainable projects contained in the addendum to the Recovery Plan and the possibility that the autonomous communities could incur a deficit of 0.1 % in 2024, tenth that the State will assume.
Despite this first step to advance a reform for all the common regime communities, the PP autonomies have opened a new front of attack against the cancellation of 20% of the Catalan debt with the FLA. A critical tone was also adopted from the Canary Islands, although more moderate. Asturias (PSOE) demanded equality in treatment, while the socialist Emiliano García-Page said he trusted the Government.
What is criticized, in terms of political strategy, is that the PSOE has agreed “bilaterally” with ERC. The autonomies ask for debt forgiveness adapted to their needs in a multilateral negotiation, and, along the lines set by Andalusia, they point out that Catalonia cannot receive more money per inhabitant than the others. The popular barons threaten to take the agreement to court if they consider that the system is not equitable. But they will all be in the negotiation. Another thing is the political struggle to erode the government.
