The president of PP-A and aspirant for re-election as head of the Andalusian Executive, Juanma Moreno, has rejected this Sunday what he calls the "privatization hoax" that the left attributes to his Government, and has also warned that the general secretary of PSOE-A and candidate for the Junta, María Jesús Montero, intends to "fry the Andalusians with taxes" if she manages to reach the Presidency.
Moreno has launched these messages during his speech at the closing of the Intermunicipal that the Andalusian PP has held this Sunday in Córdoba, an event that also counted with the presence of the national president of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo.
Also attending the meeting, among other 'popular' leaders, were the Deputy Secretary of Autonomous, Local Coordination and Electoral Analysis, Elías Bendodo; the president of the Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces (FEMP) and mayor of Jerez de la Frontera (Cádiz), María José García-Pelayo, and the president of the Andalusian Federation of Municipalities and Provinces (FAMP) and mayor of Córdoba, José María Bellido, who spoke just before Moreno.
In his speech, less than a month before the Andalusian elections on May 17, Moreno has boasted about having promoted "seven tax cuts" from the Junta which, as he has emphasized, have placed Andalusia as "the second autonomous community of common regime with the most fiscal competitiveness in Spain," according to the Tax Foundation.
The 'popular' leader has focused on the 99% bonus on inheritance and donation tax approved in 2019, and has warned that Montero "is clearly and sharply saying that if she has any chance of governing" in Andalusia, "she will put it back".
"So that we all know, that whoever fries us with taxes and has fried us with taxes in the State" as Minister of Finance "comes with her batteries charged to fry us all again in Andalusia," warned Moreno, who has asked PP militants to "tell" that message "to all those who have benefited from removing" the inheritance and gift tax.
The PP-A candidate has committed to "continue lowering taxes" if he remains at the head of the Junta, even though "it bothers" the socialists, and has reiterated his announcement to "also subsidize 99% of the inheritance and donation tax on housing inheritances between siblings, because citizens were asking us for it and because it was also necessary," as he has defended.
"No one has done more for public services than the PP-A"
Regarding essential services, Moreno has vindicated the management of the Andalusian PP Executive, stating that "no one has done or does more for public services" than the PP of Andalusia. "And whoever says otherwise is lying," he asserted, denouncing that "adversaries are interested in generating a false debate between public and private, because they feed on half-truths" and on "confusing" with a "cheap debate."
The Andalusian president has recalled that State roads and highways are also "public services," which he has described as "absolutely deteriorated," as well as "works of general interest" in hydraulic matters that correspond to the central Government to execute, "fundamental not only for drinking water, but for farmers and ranchers," as he has emphasized, reproaching Pedro Sánchez's Executive for the lack of investment in these areas.
Moreno has also criticized the situation of transport and railway infrastructure in the community, alluding to the "railway isolation" of Jaén or the temporary suspension of the high-speed connection between Madrid and Málaga, and has lamented that this occurs with an "Andalusian vice-president" in the Government like María Jesús Montero.
In this context, and after assuring that he is not going to "move from Andalusia in his life", he has pointed out that, if he were appointed vice-president of the Government, he would "stand up" for the "deficits" of his land, and has defended that this is what "an Andalusian should do wherever they are", and "not practice a cheap Andalusianism", he has added.
Moreno has reproached the central Executive for having only executed "three kilometers of highway in Andalusia", and "zero kilometers" of commuter rail, and has asked "what have they done" from the Government "with the taxes we have paid and are paying so that we do not have first-class infrastructure as we deserve".
"Someday they will explain it to us," he has slipped, before committing to "execute" in the next legislature, if he remains at the head of the Board, "the works of the Autovía del Olivar in its pending sections in Córdoba, Jaén and Sevilla".
Situation of Andalusian healthcare
Regarding healthcare, Moreno has acknowledged that "there is room for improvement" and that his Executive assumes that it can and must "do better," but he has made it clear that he will not "allow," because he would see it as "a contempt for the collective effort, not only of a government, but of civil servants, public employees, and professionals," to affirm that "we are much worse than before in many areas."
In this regard, he has claimed the increase in the health budget, which "did not reach 9 billion euros" when he was first invested in January 2019 and which, as he indicated, now reaches "16.2 billion euros", as well as "the largest public employment offer in the history of Andalusia", and that Andalusian hospitals be "better every day".
To "those who insult and permanently disqualify our healthcare system", Moreno has demanded "respect" for the "healthcare professionals who are doing their job in the best conditions despite the circumstances we find ourselves in and the legacy left to us" by previous socialist governments.
For this reason, the president of PP-A has lashed out against "the hoax of privatizations" that the opposition attributes to him, and has raised "what would they have done" with his Executive if, instead of increasing healthcare spending "by 65%", they had "cut 1.550 million and laid off 7,770 healthcare professionals", or if they had "put into drawers" thousands of Andalusian patients "on waiting lists so that they would not be counted" and so that "citizens would not know" that they existed.
At this point, he has admitted that "it is true that the waiting lists are high" in Andalusian public healthcare, and has defended that his Government works "with much dedication and much effort" to reduce them, but has underlined that what they "never" do is "lie" nor "put bad data in a drawer so that citizens do not know what is happening".
"We face the music, publish the correct data and accept criticism to correct and improve them," stated the president of PP-A, before warning that, "no matter how much they tamper with and re-tamper with public services, citizens are not going to buy" those messages from those who spread them.