The Minister of Finance, Arcadi España, has avoided specifying the tax measures that the PSOE will include in its program for the general elections of November 29, although he did advance that the party will opt for "continuing with a tax proposal that is going to be progressive, that is going to be progressive" and that allows supporting the welfare state and offering a favorable framework for business activity.
During his speech at the World in Progress (WIP) congress, which is being held at the Palau de Congressos de Catalunya, in Barcelona, until this Tuesday, he defended that the government’s economic strategy has managed to combine competitiveness, redistribution and strengthening of public services.
España has highlighted the macroeconomic data obtained under socialist governments, which in his view have made it possible for the economy to advance with a tax burden lower than that of other European partners such as Italy, Germany or France, and he stressed: "The deficit figures are the best in 18 years".
"WHAT WE RECEIVE" FROM TAXES
On tax matters, Arcadi España has called for a joint reflection on the benefits that citizens obtain thanks to the taxes they pay: "Everyone talks about how much they pay, but taxes are the price of civilization".
"Let us speak with passion if you will, but let us also speak about what we receive," the minister reiterated, who has also called for an honest debate on taxation, in which those who defend tax cuts explain clearly in which spending items they propose the cuts.
He criticized that "I have seen parties that have broken the world record for the biggest tax cuts in election campaign time and have broken at the same time the world record for making the biggest tax hikes when they have governed", thus reproaching some parties' incoherence.
The head of Finance added that one of the right-wing spokespersons recently proposed a tax cut that, in his words, amounts to "doing away with the IRPF", which would mean stopping collecting 85.000 million euros, an amount equivalent to the total spending of all administrations on education and higher than 100% of what is devoted to health, according to the figures he has provided.
"CERTAIN FATIGUE" OF THE EU
Likewise, the minister has defended the need to expand the community budget to respond to the new challenges of the EU, and has denounced that "there is a deliberate strategy by world powers who have said that this EU thing is an invention" and that it should disappear.
He has warned that he perceives a "certain weariness of Europe" after decades in which the community project was lived with enthusiasm, and has advocated moving forward in the harmonization of the single market and in the reform of European institutions to strengthen and grow the common project.