The president of the PP and candidate for the Presidency of the Government, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, pledges that, if he reaches La Moncloa, no autonomous community will leave the common system or have a special type of financing similar to that agreed for Catalonia between the Executive of Pedro Sánchez and ERC.
That pledge appears in the electoral program that the Partido Popular has prepared for the general elections on next 29 November and that Feijóo will present publicly in Madrid on Tuesday, accompanied by the deputy secretary for Sectoral Coordination, Alma Ezcurra, in charge of coordinating the document.
The Galician leader has criticized on numerous occasions the special financing for Catalonia agreed between the Government and the independence parties, insisting that the new model must be agreed in a multilateral manner because "what belongs to everyone is decided among everyone."
On 4 September, at an event of the PP in Málaga, he already advanced that he would promote a "fair" financing model in the event that he governs and attacked the Executive’s agreement with ERC because, as he emphasized, this is not about funding territories but the public services of citizens, regardless of where they live. "I am not going to make first- and second-class Spaniards," he said then.
Those words came shortly after the Ministry of Finance managed to get its proposal for a new system of regional financing approved in the Council of Fiscal and Financial Policy (CPFF), with the backing of the General State Administration and the support of Catalonia and the Canary Islands. The election advance has prevented that model from being put to a vote in Congress.
"No community will leave the common system"
In its program, the PP emphasizes that "no community will leave the common system," while also specifying that European funds "will be managed by everyone." "None of the communities that currently make up the common system will leave it, and there will be no new special regimes negotiated bilaterally outside of this system."
The program text also expressly rejects bilateralism. "What belongs to everyone will be decided among everyone, in the multilateral forums provided for that purpose," the document states verbatim, which Europa Press has had access to.
Likewise, the PP emphasizes that each region will be responsible for its indebtedness. "Each community will be accountable for its decisions and for its debt. We will work in a multilateral manner, in the Council of Fiscal and Financial Policy, and with the same rules for all, in a debt restructuring of the Autonomous Communities," he stresses.
Common rules and response to emergencies
The popular program also advances that the party will gradually withdraw "the extraordinary financing mechanisms as the communities regain their financial autonomy and return to the markets." "The exceptional mechanisms for crisis situations will have prior, transparent and common rules for everyone," the PP adds in its proposal.
In this context, the document specifies that the autonomous communities and cities will have "specific treatment in the event of emergencies or major disasters, as in the case of Ceuta or Valencia," in reference to the massive entry of immigrants at the end of July and to the dana that affected the Valencian Community in October 2024.