The PDECat, which has four seats in the Congress of Deputies and has been a stable partner of Pedro Sánchez in this legislature in the last two years, warned the central government on Tuesday that with the low level of budget execution in Catalonia it is complicated to support next year’s general state budgets, which will be processed in the autumn and preparation has begun now.
Its spokesman in the Lower House, Ferran Bel, as Esquerra Republicana, Moncloa’s other partner, did yesterday, pointed out today at a press conference that the central Executive is going to have a very difficult time approving the public accounts if it continues “giving excuses for bad payer”, a fact that, as he stressed, “even more outrages the population of Catalonia”.
In this sense, he has demanded a compensation mechanism for autonomous communities affected by low budget execution, and “that these resources remain at the disposal of the community”, to prevent unexecuted investments from being computed as new investment in the following year.
Bel has also described as “gross excuses” the explanations they have given about the execution of 2021 in Catalonia, around 36% compared to more than 180% of the Community of Madrid, and has pointed to the Ministry of Transport, Adif and Renfe as “those responsible” for the low execution. The deputy from Tortosa has stressed when the Minister of Transport or the Minister of Economic Affairs give explanations “they make the situation worse” and “they increase the anger in Catalonia”.
Specifically, he made reference to yesterday’s statements by Nadia Calviño on Catalunya Ràdio, where she blamed the investment deficit in Catalonia on the pandemic and the Government of the Generalitat for having rejected the expansion of El Prat airport. “If the extension had been admitted, the investment in 2021 would have been exactly the same, because it was not planned for 2021”, Bel pointed out.
