The implementation of the minimum vital income is muddy when there is only a week left for applications to begin. The city councils rebel against the agreement that the Inclusion Ministry wants to sign with the Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces (FEMP) so that state aid is paid by the Government, but the entire bureaucracy falls on the shoulders of the consistories.

More than 850,000 requests are anticipated. This will imply a notable reinforcement of the local social services workforce, at a cost of around 200 million euros, and that mayors believe that the Ministry - who is the grantor of aid - should pay, and not they, because if not, "they would collapse", as they have recognized in the FEMP negotiations.

That is why the PP has decided to launch an offensive throughout the territory: it will present a motion in each and every one of the more than 8,000 municipalities in Spain, to urge the Government "to guarantee that the administrations that have to manage the minimum vital income count with sufficient resources. " In this way, they want the mayors of the PSOE "to be portrayed", given that there is consensus in the FEMP that a state measure should not further stress the treasury of the consistories.

The motion, to which EL MUNDO has had access, urges Minister José Luis Escrivá to "create a new fund that allows those local entities to assume the management of this new benefit, through agreements with the National Security Institute Social, take care of said management in an appropriate way and without putting at risk the processing of existing social aids in them ".

The draft agreement, advanced last week by this newspaper, reveals that the municipalities with more than 20,000 inhabitants will be the ones to initiate the administrative file of each applicant, but the document does not include an item intended for local authorities to reinforce and expand its staff to cover those 850,000 anticipated requests.

And that leaves local finances at a complicated crossroads, since the Government is clear: the processing of applications "must be financed by local entities exclusively from current income that they plan to obtain in the same year in which it begins the procedure regulated in that precept, without exceeding the surplus expected at the end of the year. "

The draft details a large number of tasks for the municipalities, which, due to their proximity, are the ones that can best encourage state aid to expand. Among many others, "check ex officio the maintenance of the coexistence unit", "receive and transfer to the Social Security Institute" any change in the economic conditions of each family, "check compliance with obligations" and "prepare reports "which will serve to determine the penalties for noncompliants.

Municipalities are "delighted" to take on these tasks, but not their cost. "Sánchez wants the municipalities to pay for his electoral campaign and pay for his broken dishes. Proof of this is the minimum vital income, which the Prime Minister intends to manage the Councils of all Spain," laments Antonio González Terol, Deputy Secretary-General for Territorial Policy of the PP.

The "imposition" of bearing the bureaucratic costs of rent "is going to be impossible to fulfill if the government does not provide legal tools and allow economic funds to be available to local entities," he adds. "And, in addition, it will be unfeasible if Sánchez ends up seizing the surplus of the municipalities, as some minister of his Government has already suggested," the 'popular' leader said.

The president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, yesterday transmitted this concern to Pedro Sánchez. During the Conference of Presidents, she warned her that "the municipalities ask for help to manage the minimum vital income". "They need a plan to help them manage," he emphasized.

The bureaucratic cost of the measure will be high for the main municipalities. The two main ones that will support the motion, those of Madrid and Zaragoza, have made calculations. The consistory of the capital must hire 200 people and spend more than 15 million euros. The team of Jorge Azcón, mayor of the Aragonese capital, assures that the impact on his coffers will be 3.5 million, which forces him to hire 45 officials.

The PP calculates that the fund should be around 200 million, since the cost of managing, reviewing and monitoring the aid will be "200 euros per family". But, of course, the law prevents city councils from increasing their personnel expenses by more than 5% due to the management of the minimum income, at a time when the local coffers are already carrying water around their necks, after the avalanche of requests for municipal aid of last resort.

In addition, the 'popular' mayors demand that all the autonomous communities manage the minimum income, and not only Navarra and the Basque Country: "It is a comparative grievance between citizens of both communities that contradicts the equality between Spanish women enshrined in the Constitution" .

And they demand that the advanced draft be sent by this newspaper to all municipalities, "urgently and before this benefit comes into force", which will occur on the 15th, with retroactive effect to June 1.

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