Moncloa forces the three large CCAA of the PP to an extra adjustment of 617 million

The Community of Madrid, Valencia and Andalusia will have to apply an extraordinary adjustment of 617 million euros if the Government continues with its plans and imposes deficit targets sent last spring to Brussels. The three large regions governed by the Popular Party – along with Catalonia, which will face an extra cut of 277 million – will be the autonomies most affected by the rule endorsed by a report from the State Attorney’s Office to which it has had access. elEconomista.es. The Executive clings to it to overcome the Senate’s veto of the initial Treasury proposal. In her, stricter criteria are established than the initial ones, which proposed a 0.1% deficit rule for the regions by 2024; Instead, the Executive will impose a zero deficit for the Autonomous Communities and a surplus for the City Councils, instead of a balanced budget.

On this basis, the first vice president, María Jesús Montero, will begin to build the Budgets for 2024, after two months held up by the parliamentary dispute. The new fiscal path will force all autonomous regions with deficits to redouble their efforts. Total, twelve regions will have to adjust an additional 1,226 million. The extra effort that Murcia and Castilla-La Mancha will have to make also stands out. The accounts of the region governed by the popular Fernando López Miras have the largest imbalance expected at the end of 2023. Its deficit could rise to -2%, according to forecasts published in the final stretch of the year by AIReF. “There is plenty of room for Pedro Sánchez while he suffocates the autonomous communities,” denounced yesterday Marcos Ortuño, spokesperson for the Murcian Executive.

The autonomous battle

The truth is that the popular veto narrows the spending margin of the autonomies. Those of Emiliano García Page, who will have to apply an extra adjustment of 50.7 million, will force the PP of La Mancha to position itself in favor of the additional adjustment. “It is important that today the PP does not look the other way, that it explains in Castilla-La Mancha why this is its wish for this region, to cut us also being in the opposition 50 million euros that would be destined to continue strengthening public health, public education and social services,” announced the socialist spokesperson in the Castilla-La Mancha parliament, Ana Isabel Abengózar, who yesterday registered two Non-Law Propositions (PNL) in this regard. The initiatives support Moncloa’s strategy. “The Senate’s veto of the Government’s path means that the autonomous communities will have almost 1,500 million less fiscal capacity to allocate to public services and the City Councils will have nearly 3,000 million euros less for municipal policies,” said the Ministry of Finance after the rejection of the Upper House of his fiscal path proposal.

The change in fiscal rules occurs at a time when all the autonomies –except Catalonia– have already approved their budgets based on different criteria those that the Treasury has ended up fixing. Regions such as Andalusia prepared their accounts under the premise of a regional deficit of 0.1%. “The State reserves 97% of the deficit and leaves 3% to the autonomous communities. Does that seem reasonable to you? When the communities are the ones who have the burden of health, social services, dependency and education,” he criticized yesterday the Andalusian president, Juanma Moreno. The Murcian government ruled out modifying its budgets, prepared from a 0.1% deficit in 2024. However, the CCAA will have more resources this year than ever, due to the additional income from the difference between the collection forecast and the final collection driven by the inflation crisis.

Urgent processing

Moncloa’s intention is to speed up as much as possible the deadlines to present the bill before the Congress of Deputies before the end of March. Montero has already activated the technical machinery to carry out the Budgets as soon as possible. Yesterday, the head of the Treasury called the regional Treasury departments to a second-level meeting to explain the amount that is going to be transferred from the Interterritorial Compensation Fund. a formal step prior to the drafting and design of the Budgetsand which indicates that the Executive will try to squeeze out the procedures.

However, Moncloa will once again clash with the necessary parliamentary procedures before taking the accounts to the plenary session of the Congress of Deputies. The bill, once approved by the Council of Ministers, will undergo a cascade of appearances, amendments, debates and votes in the different Commissions. Moncloa does not trust to have its final approval before next July.

On the sidelines is the list of conditions that the parliamentary groups of the investiture bloc have already begun to put forward. The PSOE faces the challenge of negotiating a new wave of agreements to guarantee – once again – the viability of a bill, which must comply with the fiscal discipline imposed by Brussels.