The PSOE regional deputy Jesús Morales this Friday described as an “insult” the decision to keep funding for the districts and town councils frozen in the Aragón budgets for 2027, and criticized that the Government of Jorge Azcón does not update its contributions despite the rise in personnel and operating costs for the public services that these administrations support.
After the appearance of the Minister of Housing, Development, Logistics and Territorial Cohesion, Octavio López, in the Cortes of Aragón, Morales reproached the regional Executive for presenting accounts that he defines as historical while keeping, without variation, the resources allocated to local entities, which are the administrations closest to citizens and responsible for numerous essential services, especially in the rural sphere.
The Socialist spokesperson has stated that the fund for town councils, estimated at around 30 million euros, has gone three consecutive fiscal years without being modified, in the same way as the districts’ financing through section 26, which does not show the increase necessary to take on the rise in their ordinary expenses.
Morales recalled that in 2025 Jorge Azcón promised an additional injection of two million euros for the districts, a commitment which, as he has denounced, does not appear in the budget proposal for 2027.
PUBLIC SERVICES AND THE RURAL WORLD
The deputy warned that this freeze has a direct impact on the services provided by the districts, especially those linked to care for older people, home help, measures to support work-life balance, and other essential resources for those who live in rural areas.
At the same time, the Socialist parliamentarian has questioned the solidity of the “historical” budgets that the Government of Jorge Azcón publicizes for 2027 and has emphasized that the low execution of investments in previous fiscal years raises doubts about the Executive’s ability to carry out its commitments in housing, roads, and territorial cohesion.
“Once again the Government of Aragón is the government of announcements,” Morales said, adding that the large budget figures do not, by themselves, guarantee that the promised projects will be carried out.
The Socialist spokesperson has specified that, although the Department’s budget for 2027 increases by 45% and comes close to 376 million euros, the minister had already set, in 2025, a final consolidated budget of 390 million euros, of which only about 270 million were carried out, which is equivalent to an approximate execution rate of 69%.
Morales has pointed out that this background forces the announcements made by the regional Government to be called into question, especially when the people responsible for the department and the teams in charge of managing the investments continue to be the same.
CRITICISMS OF PROTECTED HOUSING POLICY
Another of the central reproaches by the Socialist spokesperson has been directed at the protected housing policy of the Government of Azcón. Morales has recalled that the increase in protected housing modules approved by the regional Executive means that people in Aragón have to pay 42,000 euros more for a home.
In response to this rise in costs, the Government only foresees four million euros in purchase aid, with grants that are located approximately between 11,000 and 18,000 euros and, according to its calculations, could reach about 275 purchasers.
For this reason, he has stated that the PSOE will register amendments to reinforce the aid and prevent it from being buyers who fully assume the additional cost of protected housing resulting from the decisions of the regional Executive.
ROADS, TRANSPORT AND BUDGET EXECUTION
In the area of roads and transport, Morales has stressed that a substantial part of the department’s resources is directed toward projects that were launched during the Socialist Government of Javier Lambán.
Among them, he has mentioned the Extraordinary Roads Plan and the concession map for transport, two initiatives that absorb a relevant proportion of the budget dedicated to road infrastructure and interurban transport.
The Socialist spokesperson has considered it especially significant that the Government of Azcón achieves its best levels of execution precisely in the programs inherited from previous Socialist administrations, while it accumulates problems in getting its own proposals off the ground.
Morales has also denounced delays in the execution of the housing budget items corresponding to 2024, for which, as he explained, three budget years were needed in order to reach the initial forecasts.