The Minister of Finance, Public Administrations and Digital Transformation of Castilla-La Mancha, Juan Alfonso Ruiz Molina, has called for "transparency" this Monday from the Minister of Finance, Arcadi España, within the framework of the reform of the regional financing system. At the same time, he has spoken of "blackmail" to the communities and has warned that the agreement would already be "closed" with ERC and Catalonia.
"We are facing a contract of adhesion, an agreement already closed with a political party and with a specific autonomous community, which is profoundly unfair because it is a model that generates privileges for one autonomous community and grievances for the others," the head of Castilla-La Mancha's finances stated at a press conference.
Ahead of the technical meeting this Tuesday, prior to the Fiscal and Financial Policy Council on July 29, where financing will be discussed, the Castilla-La Mancha government attends with the intention that "transparency" and "objectivity" prevail in all data and reports provided.
Ruiz Molina denounces a "lack of transparency" which, in his opinion, "does not correspond at all with any regional financing negotiation process in the history of the autonomous communities." For this reason, he has called on the head of Finance to provide Castilla-La Mancha with the same information and data on the model that the Generalitat of Catalonia or Esquerra Republicana de Cataluña may have.
The minister also wanted to emphasize that, in his opinion, the design of the system is proposed "as blackmail," so that those communities that "do not adhere" to the proposal, which he hopes "will not go forward," would remain under the previous framework and, consequently, would be left out of the 21 billion euros that the central government offers to put on the table for regional financing.
Given a matter that the Government of Castilla-La Mancha considers of "utmost importance" and bearing in mind "the almost unanimous rejection," except for one autonomous community, that the central government's initiative arouses, Ruiz Molina believes that "it would be very appropriate" to address this issue in a Conference of Presidents, as has been requested by the regional president, Emiliano García-Page.
On the other hand, the counselor has pointed out that, with the information available to him, Castilla-La Mancha is the only community that has already sent a detailed financing proposal to the Ministry. He would like this approach to be debated at a Conference of Presidents and, if not possible, at the CPFF itself.
Castilla-La Mancha is committed to a model that respects the principle of equality and starts from the idea that national wealth belongs to the country as a whole. Therefore, it argues that the distribution should be made with criteria that ensure all autonomous communities the same financing per inhabitant and, consequently, the possibility of offering public services —at least essential ones— with an equivalent level of quality.
"Castilla-La Mancha does not want more than anyone else," but it does not want "less than anyone else," has remarked the regional head of Finance, who has insisted that Castilla-La Mancha aspires to receive the same financing per inhabitant as Catalonia could obtain with this model. "We would like to have 10% more financing than what separates the financing of Castilla-La Mancha from the financing of Catalonia," he has pointed out.