The PSOE seems willing, after an unsuccessful legislature, to put the reform of the expired financing model on the table, even if it is to satisfy the Catalan parties that would be necessary to carry out an eventual investiture of Pedro Sánchez. After years without significant progress, the Minister of Finance, María Jesús Montero, pointed out in a television interview that “the reform of the regional financing system is urgent.”
This commitment to changing the model has opened a small rift between the Valencian president, Carlos Mazón, and his Madrid counterpart, Isabel Díaz Ayuso. Both had shown great political harmony in recent months to the point that the president of Madrid was at the inauguration of the man from Alicante as the new president of the Generalitat.
However, both the highest representative of the Community of Madrid and its Minister of Economy spoke out publicly against the fact that the investiture negotiation entailed a removal of the historical debt caused, precisely, by the underfinancing suffered by autonomies such as Catalonia but which weigh even more on regions such as the Valencian Community.
While the head of the Madrid Treasury assured that her regional government would legally combat eventual forgiveness of the regional debt, Ayuso tweeted that it would be “an insult to the CCAAs that strive not to get into debt.”
A situation that puts the new Valencian government of Carlos Mazón on the ropes, since his party -the PP- has always been in favor of a consensus in the Valencian parliament regarding the reform of the model and the cancellation of the debt caused by a expired model.
Yesterday the Valencian president avoided aligning himself with Ayuso – “I aligned myself with the Valencian people” – and defended the “Valencian exceptionalism” that makes the Community of Catalonia the “worst treated and financed” autonomy for years. The popular leader defended the urgency of “urgently arbitrating a new financing system that does justice to the Valencian Community”, and also the need for “compensation, in the manner in which it is deemed appropriate, for all this time” .
Mazón did not want to talk about removal or forgiveness so as not to clash head-on with the all-powerful Madrid leader, but he made clear his willingness to “study the formulas that are beneficial for compensation. Within the framework of compensation and new financing for the Valencian Community, not a step back, ”he clarified.
During the morning, from the opposition, both PSPV and Compromís, had reproached him for his silence after the clear position of Madrid.
At the same time, the Valencian deputy in Congress, Àgueda Micó, warned that she would not vote for the investiture of the socialist Pedro Sánchez without a clear commitment in this matter and a commitment to the Valencian agenda of demands. Although Joan Baldoví, on his day, made the same pronouncement, in the end Compromís ended up supporting Sánchez after signing an agreement to reform the model that was not signed. Now that the differences between blocks are so close and all votes count, the Valencian coalition wants to assert the vote of its two deputies enrolled in Compromís forces.
The open debate around the reform of the financing model is a great opportunity for the Valencian Community. As this newspaper explained, 75% of the 52,300 million accumulated Valencian debt has been generated due to structural underfinancing.
