The Minister of Finance, Public Administration and Social Dialogue, Elena Manzano, has censured the total amendment filed by Unidas por Extremadura to the budgets for 2027, considering that it places its approaches in a "black-and-white perspective".
In her intervention, Manzano indicated that it is "always a pleasure" to debate with said group because its deputies "work, although they do so situated perhaps several decades ago, fifty years, and with a black-and-white perspective". "But you do work," she added.
During her reply after the defense of Unidas por Extremadura’s amendment, the minister responded to several of the proposals and reproaches made by the formation.
Regarding the economic model defended by Unidas, she criticized that it is "the usual one". "There are not many new things, it is the usual one and it involves returning to the fiscal hell of which you were co-authors, necessary collaborators," she pointed out.
According to her, "they worked every day to expel our population by suffocating it with taxes and also that everything be absolutely public, that the private sector have no place in our autonomous community and that we focus solely on the public sphere".
In this line, Manzano rejected the statement included in the amendment that Extremadura has a fiscal policy "typical of a colony", and emphasized that the account payments are not "money from Mr. Sánchez that he takes out of his pocket", but rather come from the "Spanish effort and Extremaduran effort in tax payment".
In response to Unidas por Extremadura’s demand for a housing policy "much more ambitious" and one that is not limited to deductions, the minister mentioned the construction of 3,500 homes, as well as the promotion of the youth guarantee, the rent bonus and aid for construction.
Likewise, she rejected the expression by Unidas that the accounts for 2027 "are not up to the level of the pains" of Extremadura, defending that the region "does not hurt anywhere".
"Our land is healthy, our land is strong. What hurts our land is that we sit at a table where there is an empty plate because of the regional financing system while the rest are flooded with resources. Our land is healthier than ever, gentlemen of Unidas. Our land is strong. Our land no longer stays silent," Manzano emphasized.
In relation to essential public services, the councillor has rejected as an "absolute lie and that is disproved by figures" the accusation of a supposed privatization, insisting that they are "better than ever" funded.
Likewise, she has maintained that the University of Extremadura is also "better funded than ever" and has pointed out that public employees are now being attended to, who have received pending payments in recent years.
For all these reasons, Manzano has concluded that the criticisms of Unidas por Extremadura lack "technical support" and do not find their "reflection in numbers".
Tax proposals of Unidas
As for the tax measures included in the whole-issue amendment of Unidas por Extremadura, the Minister of Finance has underlined that the abolition of the Wealth Tax has resulted in a loss of revenue of 5 million euros.
"As of today there are taxpayers who would have to pay this tax if this tax were in force. New taxpayers who have come to our autonomous community, new filers with incomes above 600,000 euros who perhaps were not, ladies and gentlemen, here, who perhaps would never have come if we had maintained this tax figure," she has stated.
In this regard, she has reiterated that 5 million euros have stopped being collected, but that "much more" is obtained thanks to the new taxpayers with incomes above 600,000 euros.
On the reduction in the Tax on Installations that Impact the Environment contemplated in the 2027 accounts and questioned by Unidas, the councillor has asked what effects the closure of Almaraz would have had.
Manzano has described the one put forward by Unidas as a "fiscal policy of always, they have not innovated much, there are not many changes, an insufficient fiscal policy", and has lamented that "there is absolutely nothing rigorous" in the formation's proposals.
Finally, the Minister of Finance has thanked Unidas por Extremadura for their "unachievable proposals" because, although "they remain disconnected to the maximum degree from reality", at least the whole-issue amendment presented "is not a cut and paste".