Javier Fernández-Lasquetty (Madrid, 1966) directs the Treasury of the autonomous community hardest hit so far by the coronavirus. Respond to EL MUNDO in a telephone conversation.

What financial situation is the Community in? We come from a good financial situation, because we ended 2019 with the lowest debt of all the common regime communities together with the Canary Islands and within the limit of the deficit, but the coronavirus is an extraordinary effort so unpredictable and because of its size. The impact on our regional accounts is going to be no less than 2,000 million euros and we are going to need extraordinary funds. The president of the community has formally asked the Minister of Finance for a non-reimbursable fund and while she does not create that fund, that allows us to go into debt to pay the expenses that are already occurring: the 8,000 doctors and nurses who have already been hired or the more than 2,000 for nursing homes. What response has María Jesús Montero given them? None. We have been without information for two weeks from the Ministry of Finance that has stopped making videoconferences with the advisers to the Treasury. I want to believe that you are waiting for the European negotiation. What we are asking for is exactly the same that the Government of the nation has requested from Brussels: an extraordinary non-reimbursable fund for all the amount that the coronavirus supposes in Spain. Are they asking for 2,000 million for how long? For four months, not the total stoppage of the activity, but rather an impact in that time, adding the increase in spending and the loss of collection due to the suspension of taxes on autonomous management. Minister Montero has conditioned Murcia to allow indebtedness to raise taxes. Are you ready for that negotiation? We need State support, but the Community of Madrid is not going to make the fiscal policy that the PSOE and Podemos would like. Blackmails no. I hope they do not intend that, due to the fact that we have to pay the cost of the coronavirus, because his Murcian counterpart has denounced that situation ... It is outrageous. In a context of crisis as gigantic as the one we have the last thing the country needs is tax increases. On the contrary, it is necessary to make the tax burden more flexible in the State. Is it contradictory to ask for more public spending now and to defend tax cuts for later? Now the expense is inescapable. All people who have fallen ill, including those from Ifema and medicalized hotels, must be cared for in hospitals, also to help liquidity for companies and the self-employed. But Spain will be much worse, if we get out of this with less freedom, less business and more interventionism and state authoritarianism. The way to get out of the crisis quickly is with all the innovation capacity of businessmen and other citizens, and it will require less regulatory rigidity, more flexibility and less taxes. Is it reaffirmed in defending the private management of Health? Totally. The first wave of cases was the Torrejón hospital, which is public with private management. It is being demonstrated that the formula of public hospital under private management works and is capable of giving an extraordinary efficient and productive response. The public-private collaboration has allowed the community to have 12 hospitals that we did not have twelve years ago. Why this spectacle of each autonomous community buying medical supplies at their own expense at lower prices than centrally? Due to the unpredictability and incompetence of the Ministry of Health . The purchases of the Community of Madrid have been emergency at a reasonable price, but if the Ministry had done it with a larger volume for all of Spain in late January or early February, they would undoubtedly be better prices. He reacted late and a moment came that he did not leave anyone to buy on his own to take care of himself. He dedicated himself to seizing and this produced a disruption effect on the international and national supply chain. Now it allows everyone to buy but without giving facilities. Why Madrid has been hit hardest so far? It is a region open to the world. Receive 70% of foreign investment in Spain.

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