UNDER REGISTRATION
Updated Wednesday, March 13, 2024-00:03
With the publication of the
fiscal balances
by the Ministry of Finance, the Government once again stirs up the division between Spaniards to please its Junts partners.
In the nationalist imagination, fiscal balances aim to express the difference between what the autonomous communities contribute and what they receive from the State.
However, it is an extremely complex tool because there is never consensus regarding the quantification of the services that the State provides to the community.
s autonomies.
It may be a useful calculation for academics and prosecutors, but in the hands of politicians it is only a weapon for confrontation.
For this reason, the dissemination of the raw numbers, a commitment that Junts extracted from the PSOE in exchange for its support for the
omnibus decree
, activates a dangerous mechanism that opens the door to the
exaltation of territorial grievances.
The Catalan independence movement demands the "transparency" of the scales because, in its opinion, they will allow it to feed its story of a historically underfinanced Catalonia, with a fiscal deficit of more than 20 billion euros.
Is
the same lie
Spain steals
with which the
processes.
Until now María Jesús Montero had refused to publish them because it would encourage "reproaches" between CCAA.
She even criticized Junts for its unsupportive speech.
That is the irresponsibility that the Government now incurs, since each community will be able to use the data at will to present itself as harmed.
Thus, Carles Puigdemont already clung yesterday to a specific item - Renfe's investment in 2021 - to
place the Community of Madrid in the target.
However, other figures extraordinarily contravene the pro-independence fabrication.
A very expressive example is
pensions:
Catalonia is unable to pay them.
In this sense,
the united action of the 11 regions governed by the PP
is essential.
They will be right if, as they proposed in Córdoba, they defend equality between Spaniards and do not fall into the traps that the Government sets for them.
Junts and ERC compete with each other while preparing the ground to further exploit Pedro Sánchez's weakness.
Once the total amnesty has been achieved, and with the secession referendum on the horizon, both parties and part of the Catalan business community are pressing for
a "fiscal pact" that would imply the transfer of 100% of taxes
and the implementation
de facto
of a confederal fiscal model, unsustainable for the country as a whole.
Any new concession from Sánchez, in any case, will only project
the inequality established in the amnesty:
If the Penal Code does not apply to certain citizens, it is logical that interterritorial solidarity does not apply either.
However, the reform of regional financing cannot be based on tailored suits, but on a loyal debate between parties and administrations to agree on an efficient and supportive model.
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