The PP campaign spokesman, Borja Sémper, defended this Monday in Barcelona that action must be taken in matters of taxation, political management and economic management from the central government because “Catalonia cannot be lost as an economic engine”. Sémper, PP candidate for Madrid on 23-J, on the list headed by Alberto Núñez Feijóo, has advocated in this sense for focusing political action on issues that interest citizens and “overcoming stages” in which “we talked more of our navel”, in reference to the procés. “I very much respect those who talk about his navel, but it’s better to talk about the butxaqueta (little pocket, in Catalan),” he defended during a discussion at the Círculo Ecuestre with the deputy director of La Vanguardia, Lola García.
In fiscal matters, he has defended reviewing the energy tax and has argued that the PP wants to eliminate the wealth tax and the inheritance tax, which they consider “confiscatory”. Asked about the tax differences between autonomous communities and the possibility of carrying out tax harmonization from the central government, Sémper has ruled it out.
“I don’t think we have a tax harmonization problem, we have a fiscal soundness problem. As the government of Spain, you can also make policies in defense of fiscal soundness,” he assured. The PP spokesman has questioned whether the autonomy of the communities is compatible with harmonization. “It is implantable, but we can make policies that help make it rational,” he said.
Among those attending the colloquium, organized by the Círculo Ecuestre and La Vanguardia, were the CEO of the Godó Group, Carlos Godó, and the vice president of the Círculo Ecuestre, Enrique Lacalle, who introduced Sémper. Prominent figures from the Catalan PP have also attended, including the mayor of Badalona, ??Xavier Garcia Albiol, the councilor of the PP in Barcelona Daniel Sirera and the former councilor Alberto Fernández Díaz.
Fully involved in the pre-campaign of the next general elections on July 23, Borja Sémper has announced that a PP government will audit public accounts and study how to reduce inefficient spending by the administration before seeking more resources from citizens .
He has also defended the need for the Spaniards to give the PP a “sufficient” majority to be able to govern alone, without having to form a coalition with Vox, which he has described as “a populist party that does not come with solutions, but rather with a particular electoral interest”, that “gives easy answers to complex problems” and “goes with gasoline to put out a fire”. “What we have to do in politics is try to calm the situation,” he stressed.
In this sense, he has advocated reaching in the next legislature major agreements and State pacts between the PP and the PSOE and other formations to address the main challenges of the country, among which he has cited the reform of the pension system, health or foreign policy, and abandon the “mess” and “living entrenched in watertight compartments”.
Sémper has compared Vox with Podemos and Sumar, since in his opinion “they do not have a shared country project and a future, but want to take advantage of a context and a political moment to have some kind of political profitability,” he assured. That is why he has defended that the PP can govern alone. “It would be good for the tranquility of the President of the Government,” he pointed out.
“If you associate with others, you can have a vision of the country and the other cannot. We can guarantee stability if we govern alone,” he defended, referring to a possible government coalition with the party led by Santiago Abascal, although he has guaranteed that in this case the PP is not going to “renounce important positions, even if the partner demands it”. “We don’t want to reproduce Sanchismo backwards,” he said.
However, facing the general elections on July 23, he has been optimistic about getting Vox voters to trust the PP again. “There is a Vox voter who is not happy with what the PP did, he is angry with the PP and he sees that Abascal arrives on horseback and he thinks that he is going to solve it. This voter is recoverable, if you tell him that his problem is not solved with more gasoline”, has indicated
In the key of Catalan politics, and asked if the independence movement grows in Catalonia when the PP governs, he has pointed out that there is a correlation but not a causal relationship, and has maintained that “the formula for it not to happen is to stop talking about the pro-independence parties and talk about the Catalans and the second is to stop talking to pro-independence parties and talk to the Generalitat”. “The Catalans care about health, education and recovering their lost joy. The Spanish government has a lot to do”, he has defended.
Asked if the PP would be willing to support a president of the socialist Generalitat to avoid a new independence government, along the lines of what it has done in the Barcelona City Council, it has implied that it is: “Feijóo understands Spain from a similar way to how the comrades of the PP of Catalonia understand it. We will always be on the side of generating stability. The example of Barcelona is clear”.
Regarding whether the PP is going to take steps to change the linguistic model in Catalonia, it has defended that the “freedom of individuals and families” must be respected, and although the model of linguistic immersion in the Catalan school has the support of the majority Parliament has indicated that “minorities can also be attended to”.
In economic matters, Sémper has defended the promotion of policies for Catalonia to recover its economic rhythm, and has pointed out that, as a Basque, “in the most complicated years of terrorism”, he viewed Catalonia “with great envy because the Basque Country was a land where terrorism wreaked much havoc”. “When we looked at Catalonia we saw a land with its idiosyncrasies, there was a coexistence, an extraordinary economic activity, there was drive, there was creativity, it was envy. For some time now this has been reversed,” he added.
The leader of the PP has assured that Catalonia, like Euskadi, “is a land of entrepreneurs, with its own language, and with a very notable business fabric, and something does not work when it is invested, when the driving force of Spain changes.” “We cannot lose economic engines in Spain. We cannot lose Catalonia or lose the Basque Country as an economic engine. It is good that Andalusia joins as an economic engine, but without losing others, or we all lose. If any economic engine catches the flu, if any The economic engine suffers, not only those of the earth suffer, but all of us Spaniards also suffer”, he stressed.