The need to find a fair financing model for Catalonia was an opinion shared by the candidates for the presidency of the Generalitat who today took part in the first electoral debate, organized by La Vanguardia and RAC1, led by the deputy director of this newspaper, Enric Sierra, and the director of El Món on RAC 1, Jordi Basté.
A debate in which, contrary to what one might think, the Amnesty law has been a collateral element, while the candidates have focused on more domestic issues, such as the language in school, the quality of the public services provided the Generalitat, immigration and the financing of Catalonia.
This last question has generated a certain consensus. The proposal, already presented in pre-election time by the ERC Government, for “singular financing” has been one of the axes of the debate and a reason for discussion between the different political forces.
For President Pere Aragonès, financing is one of the issues that must be resolved to end the investment deficit. The head of the ERC list has accused Salvador Illa of being the candidate of the PSOE and the Government, for which he has invalidated him in order to meet the financial needs of Catalonia. According to Illa, the Estatut should be used to improve financing and he asked on several occasions why it has not been deployed to its full potential.
Josep Rull has stated that the PSOE is laminating the possible aspirations regarding the financing of Catalonia and the investment deficit. For the Junts representative, this should be one of the central issues that must be resolved in the next legislature. Rull has also taken the opportunity to accuse Illa, who has become the target of most criticism, of the “incredible” non-compliance of the central government.
For his part, the PP candidate, Alejandro Fernández, when asked if his formation would improve the financing system, has assured that his party will always work for it. In this sense, he recalled that, under the PP government in Spain, two financing reforms were approved that improved the financial conditions of the Generalitat. Likewise, he has said that Catalonia must forge alliances with other communities in a similar situation such as the Valencian Community and the Balearic Islands.
The Comuns Sumar candidate, Jéssica Albiach, has described the current model as “atrocious: we contribute 17% and recover 13%.” She has also criticized Madrid’s fiscal dumping, which she described as “scandalous.”
In the first minutes, the debate addressed the decision of the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, to take a period of reflection to decide his future. The question of how they had received the news has become for some of the candidates a competition to determine who has suffered the most lawfare in recent years.
The socialist candidate, Salvador Illa, was the first to speak about this issue to affirm that the news “was unexpected, at least on my part.” He has ruled out any electoral strategy and has warned of the need for collective reflection to prevent these situations from being repeated due to the political polarization that the country suffers.
Junts, ERC and PP have warned that Pedro Sánchez could be facing an electoral maneuver so that in the Catalan election campaign the figure of the President of the Government is discussed. This is what the ERC candidate and president of the Generalitat, Pere Aragonès, has spoken out, warning that these parliamentary elections cannot become “a plebiscite” on the figure of the head of the Spanish Government.
Number 3 on the Junts list, Josep Rull, has spoken in these same terms, stating that “he can empathize with the leader of the Executive”, but that during the time in which the independentists suffered pressure from the judges, they never They received the support of the socialists.
The candidate of the commons, Jéssica Albiach, has recalled the case of the former vice president of the Valencian Generalita, Mònica Oltra, and has rejected any future pact with the right. On the other hand, the popular Alejandro Fernández has compared Pedro Sánchez to Carles Puigdemont. “If they both leave on Monday, I will be happy,” he noted.
The second section of the debate has focused on the balance of this last legislature. As has happened in the preamble, the fundamental dividing line of the discussion has placed PP, Vox and Ciudadanos on one side and on the other PSC, ERC, Junts, Comuns and, although in a much more critical position, the CUP. . In their respective diagnoses, both blocks share the general vision but differ greatly when it comes to specifics.
As could be expected, the minority government of Pere Aragonès in the last stretch of the legislature has weighed on this balance. The current president of the Generalitat has alone defended the work carried out and has highlighted the reduction in the unemployment rate and the impact of the budget cuts applied after the financial crisis.
Aragonès has addressed the issue of language and, despite the agreements reached with the PSC on this matter throughout the legislature, he has reproached Illa for her proximity to the PP’s postulates on this matter. Specifically, his candidate, Alejandro Fernández, has recognized that the social use of the Catalan language has declined in recent years in Catalonia, which he has attributed to a failure. Carlos Carrizosa and Jéssica Albiach have also intervened on this issue, saying “leave Catalan alone” while calling for improvements throughout the educational system.
Salvador Illa, avoiding breaking bridges with the other parties and defending the policy of pacts that his parliamentary group has maintained, has criticized the inaction of the last ten years that, in his opinion, has decimated the excellence of the public service. Illa has assured that this will be his first objective if he becomes president of the Generalitat. “The first priority must be public services. A profound reform of the administration must be carried out,” he stated. Illa has committed to allocating 7% of Catalonia’s wealth to healthcare
Josep Rull has characterized his speech with an always positive image of Catalonia in which an ineffective government and administration do not accompany these virtues. From his position he has criticized Salvador Illa and Pere Aragonès alike. “A shake-up is needed. The administration’s response must be yes from the outset, stop distrusting the citizen.” Rull, who has championed the classic discourse of his political formation, has on several occasions pointed out the central government as responsible, at least in part, for Catalonia’s difficulties in “developing fully.”
Jéssica Albiach has had to defend herself from those who have accused her of being the incarnation of the “party of no” (no to the expansion of the airport, no to the Tarragona casino…) and, despite her proximity to the Aragonés government in this legislature, has questioned whether the budget cuts of a decade ago have been reversed. The leader of the Commons has stressed that “we continue to have serious problems in education and health.”
For her part, Laia Estrada, from the CUP, has had some of the most vehement interventions facing the PP candidate, Alejandro Fernández, but also Pere Aragonès.
In the other political bloc, Vox, Ciudadanos and PP, have shared the most bitter diagnosis of a Catalonia in decline as a result of the ten years of processes and tax policies, which have turned Catalans into victims, in their opinion, of a “tax hell”.
Alejandro Fernández, the PP candidate, has reproached PSC, ERC and Junts for the agreements reached throughout the legislature while Carlos Carrizosa has insisted time and again on the effects that the process has had.
Given the statements against immigrants by Ignacio Garriga, who has gone so far as to affirm that parents go to look for their daughters to prevent people who arrive in Catalonia from “raping young girls when they leave the nightclubs”, Aragonés interrupted the speech to say “enough” to the hate speeches of the extreme right.
Laia Estrada, from the CUP, has also refuted the theses of the Vox leader to say that what Catalans are really worried about is making ends meet and being able to pay for their housing.
“Catalonia is mestizo and a welcoming land,” Albiach concluded in the face of the extreme right’s attempts to monopolize the debate on the issue of security and link it to immigration.
For his part, Salvador Illa, after admitting that one of his concerns is public safety, has criticized that hate speech “does nothing but increase security problems.”
