Isabel Díaz Ayuso exploits both her political successes – at the polls and in the media – and minimizes her playing field with false innocence. The Community of Madrid “is like what you call a provincial council”, he said this week at Foros de Vanguardia. Madrid has been lowering taxes for twenty years and has not raised any. If he is accused of tax dumping, the reply is crystal clear: “Do it here”. And if he loses the legal battle with the Central Government for the tax on large fortunes, he recovers the wealth tax through the urgent route and in the middle of a bridge so that the collection stays in Madrid.
Ayuso does not want regional police or the management of its suburbs. Liberal self-government, as she defines it, is like this, not claiming powers that you cannot agree with the private sector. The rest, let the State assume it for the needs of the capital. That is why he is bitter about the coffee for everyone served by the pro-independence parties in the agreements for Sánchez’s investiture beyond the amnesty: transfer of Rodalies, forgiveness of the FLA debt and bilateral debate on funding.
Coffee for everyone is also bitter among former members of the Government in Catalonia. Together, he distrusts the ERC agreements and, after discrediting the conditions of the transfer of Rodalies, he is now asking Minister Puente for an explanation as to why he is opening the door to transfer the service to other communities that claim it – Andalusia has already done so – and the rush with the negotiation.
Carles Puigdemont’s party has not only continued to negotiate with the PSOE on the Catalan political conflict. It is intended to wrap up again with the patina of convergent influence to relegate ERC and, like the PNB, it cannot be placed ideologically in “the progressive majority” with which Sánchez defines his support in Congress. In fiscal matters, Junts is closer to Ayuso and Foment del Treball than to Yolanda Díaz.
With the amnesty law ready for the parliamentary procedure, the budget negotiation is seen as the new yenka with collateral effects in Catalonia. The calendar places the negotiation of the State’s general budgets in parallel with the Catalan accounts. With the vote for Sánchez, ERC considers the PSC’s support for the Generalitat’s budget as compromised, a fact that would allow Pere Aragonès to gain time to exhaust the legislature, with the permission of the drought, the PISA report and the generosity of the PSOE on the tables of negotiation… Looking down on Palau, the management of serious restrictions in the Barcelona area would be an electoral issue that could be avoided by calling the population to the polls.
The PSC makes calculations. Salvador Illa is preparing for a 12-month pre-election campaign, with a congress in March. A marathon to compensate for the effects of the amnesty on the voters recovered from Ciudadanos and others offended, which are already noticeable in some party polls, and which they trust will be diluted over time. The law proposal will pass the first procedure in Congress next week, but after the parliamentary journey will come the judicial one, that is to say that the PSC places the goal for the amnestied in the second quarter of 2025, exceeding the limit for an election Catalan
Illa raises the tone with ERC: “Without water, in the dark and children can’t read, write or add”. As long as the amnesty is not approved, neither ERC nor Junts can threaten to abandon the majority of the investiture and put the Sánchez Government at risk, and the Catalan Socialists cling to a usual mantra of the Republicans with the PSOE. “Keep the agreement” in this year’s budgets, was the message at the first meeting of the PSC delegation with councilors Laura Vilagrà and Natàlia Mas and their teams. Hard Rock in Camp de Tarragona, B-40, airport extension…
The hidden issues in management will be seasoned in the coming days with these debates that irritate Ayuso. Amnesty in the Catalan Congress in the Council of General Affairs of the EU; Sánchez’s meeting with Aragonès at the Palau de la Generalitat and a dialogue table, presumably in Geneva, with the presence of Marta Rovira. But before that, more bitter coffee for all the autonomy in the Fiscal and Financial Policy Council. And more batussa.
