But the possibility of negotiating a possible removal of the debt of the territories underfinanced by the State through the Autonomous Liquidity Fund (FLA) has revealed the differences in the approach of the barons of the Popular Party in a matter that directly impacts the accounts of the autonomous administrations.

All the Spanish autonomies, except Madrid, the Basque Country and Navarra, have accumulated debts with the FLA to a greater or lesser extent. The liquidity mechanism was devised in 2012 by the then Minister of Finance, Cristóbal Montoro (PP), in order to cover the needs of the community governments at a time when almost all of them found the private debt markets closed as a result of the mortgage crisis and the strong risk premium that Spain paid for its issues. What was set up as a temporary line of credit has ended up consolidating as a regular financing vehicle, especially for those territories that have financial adequacy problems or are more affected by the pay-as-you-go system while waiting for a reform that never comes.

Catalonia, without being one of the autonomous regions that benefited the most in terms of distribution, is above the average in resources per adjusted population (weighted using criteria such as aging or dispersion).. However, it has generated a strong dependence on the credit of the FLA, which is already the creditor of 84% of its 85.4 billion euros of total debt.. In other words, 71,000 million of the liabilities are debt with the Spanish Treasury.

The Catalan percentage is similar to that accumulated by the autonomies hardest hit by the financing system, according to reports from independent entities such as AIReF and Fedea. The Valencian Community, the red lantern in receipt of resources, accumulates a liability of more than 55,000 million that has its main creditor in the State, specifically, 46,274 million (83%), according to the latest figures from the Bank of Spain. Murcia, the second from the bottom, with a smaller Administration, has less overall debt, 11,506 million, but 84% of it is with the FLA. The fund dependent on the Treasury covers the million-dollar extraordinary deficits incurred by the two administrations year after year. They consider that it is not due to their own spending management, but to a chronic insufficiency of income. The documents on which they support their arguments indicate that to support similar or even lower levels of public spending per capita, the average has to resort to the FLA credit tap, which has generated a ball that, in turn, punishes its balance and prevents them from financing themselves and at reasonable interest rates in the institutional debt markets.

This explains why this Tuesday the new president of the Valencian Generalitat, Carlos Mazón, had to make argumentative balances to maintain a favorable position to what he baptized as “compensation” of debt, an implicit way of referring to the haircuts or cancellations, and the time to demand transparency from the PSOE in a possible negotiation with the pro-independence parties, without “perks or privileges” and outside the “dark room of separatism”. “I am in favor of compensating the Valencian Community. I am willing to study the formulas that are beneficial for compensation for all this time”, Mazón abounded entering the debate.

However, the Generalitat of Catalonia, in the hands of ERC, does not take the allusion for granted and does not consider for now that this will be a transcendental element when determining its position regarding a possible investiture. “The requests made by the Region of Murcia, from institutional loyalty and in the appropriate forums for it, such as the Council for Fiscal and Financial Policy, have been systematically neglected. However, it is enough that the support of the independentistas is necessary to open a new marketing around the financing of the autonomous communities”, they point to questions from El Confidencial from the Executive of the popular Fernando López Miras.

The position of Valencia and Murcia, in favor of debt restructuring through forgiveness or multilaterally negotiated compensation mechanisms, contrasts with the reading of the Community of Madrid, chaired by Isabel Díaz Ayuso. With no debt to the FLA, the Puerta del Sol Executive sees the debate in a purely political, non-technical key, and very circumscribed to the Catalan sphere, as if the matter on which it is being negotiated does not affect other communities.

“What has to be clear is that the debts must be assumed and paid. It cannot be condoned, because it is an important distortion for the market that in the end impoverishes all Spaniards and also even Catalans. What cannot be is that there is a free bar of expenses and an exponential indebtedness and that later those communities, especially Catalonia, do not want to assume their responsibility”, affirms the Madrid Minister of Economy, Finance and Employment, Rocío Albert. “Pedro Sánchez is willing to use any mechanism, even canceling the debt of Catalonia through the FLA, in order to continue maintaining Moncloa. He is willing to do anything to get the support of the independence movement,” he added..

The position of the Madrid counselor is that forgiving the FLA credit would amount to “a mutualisation of the debt that the General State Administration would have to assume, and therefore all the communities would be affected”, although it is obvious that this is already the case. de facto. The debt of the autonomies with the FLA is part of the total liability of the Kingdom of Spain for national accounting purposes. They are debts between administrations of the same State. and it makes sense. The Andalusian debt with the FLA is around 25,000 million euros (68% of the total), but the community left this financing formula in 2019. Since then, it has issued debt in the markets. The weight of the Andalusian debt with respect to GDP is 20.3%, three points less than the average for the rest of the regions. The calculation they make in San Telmo is that they lose about 1,000 million euros a year.

The Government of the Junta almost avoids ruling on the suitability of the removal. “We are not going to rule on a measure that we do not know about,” they explain from the environment of Malaga. But in San Telmo they predict that the great beneficiaries will be the potential investiture partners of Pedro Sánchez, that is, the Catalan nationalist parties. “What María Jesús Montero is doing is putting a price on the support of the pro-independence parties,” Carolina España, Minister of Economy and Finance of the Andalusian Executive, abounded on Tuesday. Spain also urges the Finance Minister to convene a Fiscal and Financial Policy Council to negotiate any measure of this nature and not to do so bilaterally with Catalonia.