Junts has aligned this Thursday with the investiture bloc in Congress and has rejected the total amendments registered by PP and Vox against the bill that provides for the partial cancellation of the debt of the autonomous communities.
With this decision, the majority of the Plenary of the Lower House has dismissed the proposals of both parties, which have only garnered the support of PP, Vox, UPN, and the former Vox deputy now integrated into the Mixed Group, Javier Ortega Smith. These amendments sought to return the initiative to the Government by arguing that the so-called cancellation of autonomous debt shifts the cost to all taxpayers and responds to the agreements of the Executive with its parliamentary partners.
The bill aims to reinforce the financial sustainability and autonomy of the common regime communities by reducing their indebtedness, with the goal of allowing them to gradually regain their ordinary access to financing in the markets.
To achieve this, the regulation contemplates that the State assumes 83.252 billion euros of autonomous liabilities, especially those generated during the financial crisis. The distribution will be determined based on criteria such as adjusted population, the volume of debt, as well as the historical financing of each community, although none will be able to see their debt reduced by more than 50% of their outstanding balance as of December 31, 2023.
The text also creates a Fund for the amortization of market autonomous debt, aimed at communities that do not accumulate enough debt with the State to benefit from the cancellation. At the same time, it introduces changes to the Financing Fund for Autonomous Communities to gradually transform it into a last resort instrument and promote the progressive return of the autonomous communities to the financial markets.
Junts opens the door to the law but warns of changes
During the debate, the Minister of Finance, Arcadi España, defended that the State has the "obligation" to correct the financial imbalances of the autonomous communities "by absorbing part of the debt" and emphasized that the initiative does not erase the indebtedness because "the debt is assumed by the State."
In the same intervention, he claimed that "equality does not consist of uniformizing our country" and stressed that the proposal will allow for the assumption of 83.252 billion euros of autonomous debt.
Junts has explained its vote against the total amendments by understanding that eliminating the Autonomous Liquidity Fund (FLA) is "a necessary step" and has advanced that it will allow the project to continue its processing, although it has warned that during the parliamentary process it will try to correct "many of the deficits" that it perceives in the text.
The PP, on the contrary, has defended its amendment considering that the project "forgives nothing," since the debt "will remain the same," and has accused the Government of resorting to the money of all Spaniards to "buy wills" and sustain itself in power.
In similar terms, Vox has described the initiative as a "law of mutualization of the autonomous debt," understanding that "the debt does not evaporate," but rather "changes pockets," and has warned that the measure sends the message that "it is not worth being responsible in management or containing spending."