Two autonomous communities governed by the PSOE—Asturias and Castilla-La Mancha—have announced they will vote against the new regional financing system, leaving the Government to attempt to pass it with the support of just a single region, Catalonia, out of the 15 common-regime territories.
With this stance, combined with that of the regions governed by the PP, there are now 14 regional finance ministers (consejeros) opposing the new financing model. The model was approved this Tuesday by the Council of Ministers and is based on the agreement reached with the leader of Esquerra, Oriol Junqueras, in exchange for his support to keep both the president of the Catalan Generalitat, Salvador Illa, and the president of the central government, Pedro Sánchez, in power. The chartered communities (the Basque Country and Navarre) are not affected.
Despite everything, the new model is expected to be approved on the 29th by the Fiscal and Financial Policy Council (CPFF), which is the key multilateral body bringing together the central Government and the autonomous communities. According to the CPFF’s unique voting regulations, the central Government only needs the vote of a single community to pass it, and it has already secured that of Catalonia, governed by the socialist Salvador Illa. However, there is no precedent in Spain of a Government attempting to impose a model on all common-regime communities with such weak political backing.
