The president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, is concerned and very critical of the economic price that Pedro Sánchez can pay to achieve the investiture. In an informal conversation about the future of regional financing at the end of the EL MUNDO Forum, the president assured this newspaper that “the price that Puigdemont puts on the fiscal deficit is a disaster for Madrid’s economy.” The former president of the Generalitat puts on the table ending the so-called fiscal deficit, which means, in his opinion, more than 20,000 million euros annually that must be guaranteed to Catalonia. “This affects all the rest of the communities of the common regime and we are the first contributor to the system, so the impact is great,” says Díaz Ayuso.
The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, has not accepted that economic price, but he has not ruled it out either. Díaz Ayuso sees a strong concession in regional financing to Catalonia in the making, aware of the impact in particular for Madrid, because “what Sánchez is looking for is for us to raise taxes.” A reduction in the system’s resources to Madrid to facilitate more for Catalonia would weaken the regional accounts, which could force Díaz Ayuso to increase his fiscal pressure to restore his coffers. “That’s what Sánchez is trying to do,” he says.
Díaz Ayuso is also against another request approved by Junts and Esquerra Republicana in the Parliament for condonation of more than 70,000 million owed to the call Autonomous Liquidity Fund (FLA) and which the central government has not rejected either. On the contrary, the PSC has shown support for negotiations.
At the moment, the Generalitat of Catalonia has already raised the financial request to accept the investiture of Pedro Sánchez to 22,000 million. They are 2,000 million more than the figure mentioned by the former president Carles Puigdemont on the 6th after his meeting with the second vice president, Yolanda Díaz.
The new figure was presented this Monday by the Minister of Economy, Natalia Mas Guixas the latest official estimate of the so-called fiscal deficit, which is the supposed difference between what Catalonia contributes to the State and what it receives.