Ayuso's Government escalates its war against Sánchez and calls on the rest of the PP communities to boycott the meeting on regional financing

The Government of Isabel Díaz Ayuso has turned its rejection of the autonomous community financing reform into a maneuver to prevent the body in charge of debating it from even being constituted. The Madrid Minister of Economy, Finance and Employment, Rocío Albert, will be absent this Friday from the meeting of the Fiscal and Financial Policy Council (CPFF) and Sol is pressuring the rest of the communities governed by the Popular Party to do the same.

The objective has been openly recognized by the regional Executive. The CPFF regulations require the presence of at least half of its members for the meeting and its votes to be valid. Ayuso intends to take advantage of the PP's broad territorial power to break that quorum and paralyze a reform that has been pending since 2014.

"The only way for this agreement not to materialize tomorrow is for there to be no quorum," sources from the Madrid Government have defended. Sol maintains that the proposal was negotiated bilaterally by the central Executive and Catalonia, accuses Salvador Illa of continuing the management of previous pro-independence governments, and assures that the model seeks to "whitewash" their debt.

Madrid has transferred its plan to the national leadership of the PP and to the Finance ministers of the other popular autonomies. The call for a boycott has caused bewilderment in some of those governments, which intended to attend the meeting and vote against it. Aragon has already confirmed its presence, while Murcia and Castilla y León have asked to withdraw the proposal from the agenda and will defend their objections within the Council itself.

Hacienda accuses Ayuso of "institutional hooliganism"

The response from the Ministry of Finance has been forceful. The department led by Arcadi España has described Ayuso's initiative as an "irresponsible call for a boycott" and an act of "institutional hooliganism," considering that it attempts to render useless one of the main spaces for cooperation between the State and the autonomous communities.

Hacienda has expressed its surprise because all common regime territories had previously confirmed their attendance. The technical meeting held this Thursday proceeded normally and, according to the Ministry, no community then communicated that it would be absent from the appointment.

The confrontation comes after the Government agreed to postpone the CPFF initially scheduled for July 29. The PP communities had requested more time to study the documentation and formulate their proposals, a request that Hacienda granted by moving the meeting to September.

After obtaining that postponement, the Madrid government has gone from demanding more time to trying to empty the body where the model should be discussed. Hacienda has assured that it will keep its hand extended to the territories and parliamentary groups to move forward with a reform aimed at financing public services such as health, education, housing, and social care.

Madrid would receive an additional 2,555 million

The Government's proposal would incorporate nearly 21,000 million euros additional to the regional financing system during its first year, scheduled for 2027. The common regime communities would collectively receive 224,507 million, with Andalusia, Catalonia, the Valencian Community, and Madrid among the largest beneficiaries in absolute terms.

Hacienda's calculations attribute 2,555 million more to Madrid than with the current model. Andalusia would add 4,846 million, Catalonia would receive 4,686 million, and the Valencian Community would gain 3,669 million. The reform would also raise regional participation in personal income tax from 50% to 55% and the corresponding VAT to 56.5%.

The distribution would introduce new criteria to calculate the real cost of public services according to population, aging, territorial dispersion, insularity, or the number of inhabitants of school age. Ayuso has focused her opposition on the origin of the agreement with Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya and has described the model as a "purchase of wills".

The rejection, in any case, extends beyond the PP. Asturias and Castilla-La Mancha, both governed by the PSOE, have also announced their vote against, while Catalonia and the Canary Islands support the proposal. The Government can approve it in the CPFF with the support of a single community as long as the meeting reaches the mandatory quorum.

Friday's vote would not close the reform either. The text will then have to pass through the Council of Ministers and achieve an absolute majority of 176 deputies in Congress, where the rejection expressed so far by Junts keeps its future in the air. If Ayuso's attempt fails and the CPFF manages to be constituted, Madrid will have voluntarily renounced to occupy its seat while the other territories take a stand on the new distribution.