The publication of the order of the Ministry of Finance with the rules for the preparation of the budget of the Generalitat Valenciana for 2023 gave the starting signal yesterday to the last great negotiation of the legislature between the partners of the Botànic. They will be key accounts as they will mark the executive's spending and investment roadmap in a year in which PSPV, Compromís and Unides Podem are playing it out with the regional elections scheduled for spring 2023.
For this reason, generous accounts are expected, as the Minister of Finance already slipped last week after verifying - after the celebration of the Fiscal and Financial Policy Council - that the Generalitat Valenciana will receive in 2023 "the greatest resources in history" from the financing system. A situation that will allow, in Spain's opinion, "to prepare budgets with which to respond and provide financial support to families, self-employed people and companies that are suffering from the increase in costs and inflation."
They will be accounts full of gestures to combat a possible worsening of the economy and the effects of the war. In fact, in the rule published in the Official Gazette of the Generalitat Valenciana (DOGV) it is explained that for the 2023 financial year “the need to continue adopting measures to mitigate the direct and indirect economic effects arising from the crisis [escalation of the prices of raw materials and intermediate goods], as well as continuing with the execution of the funds from the Recovery and Resilience Mechanism that will continue to have an essential reflection for the development of the policies of the Generalitat Valenciana”.
However, in the same order, a request is already launched to the different ministries that they will have until next September 23 to make their investment proposals in the different programs.
Thus, it is emphasized that in the preparation of the 2023 budget, "expenditure must be prioritized in accordance with the objectives pursued, a review of all items being necessary, avoiding unjustified inertial growth, in order to direct the available resources towards economic and social recovery process. And it is that the second of the criteria for the formation of proposals is "the containment and rationalization of public spending."
That will be where, again, the three parties will collide. The negotiation of the accounts has always been one of the most critical moments for the Valencian coalition government. However, it is assumed that after the departure of Vice President Mónica Oltra when charged in the case of her ex, the battle will be less bloody than in previous years.
Not everyone in Compromís understood Oltra's way of acting when it came to forcing the machine to make changes in certain games. Although a vindictive Aitana Mas is expected, it is no less true that the power of the current number two of the executive and his influence cannot be compared with his predecessor, so it is not expected that the tension of the last years.
This last negotiation will also be a litmus test for an Executive that - given the possibility of a change in cycle - seeks to present itself to the electorate as a guarantor of stability in the face of economic uncertainty.
