The Government puts pressure so that the autonomies give direct aid

A waiter preparing a terrace of a bar in the Plaza de A Quintana in Santiago de Compostela (Galicia) last Friday.Lavandeira jr / EFE

The debate on direct aid to the sectors most affected by the crisis remains open.

The new package of 11,000 million announced by the Government has not dispelled the doubts: for now everything points to a plan to reinforce the solvency of SMEs, but not to direct transfers that compensate for the fall in income.

The Executive insists that the communities assume this effort, using the transfers that the Treasury has given them and their allocation of European funds.

The tourism, hospitality and commerce employers warn: only with the financial muscle of the autonomies will it be insufficient.

The blow caused by the pandemic has been very hard and raising the head is being more difficult than expected.

The government managed to avoid a massive destruction of jobs and companies last year - with measures such as ERTE and ICO loans - but the duration of the crisis, longer than expected, puts pressure to design new support.

The autonomous regions most dependent on tourism have been the hardest hit, and the sectors most affected by the restrictions, suffocated by the slowness of the recovery, are crying out for direct help to get ahead.

• The autonomous communities urge the Government to activate a direct aid plan

• The sectors that will benefit the most from European aid will be commerce, professionals and industry.

“We are going for the third plan to support tourism and so far all have been insufficient.

If the 11,000 million announced do not have, for the most part, direct aid to facilitate immediate treasury, it will be very difficult to prevent many of the companies from going down ”, warns José Luis Zoreda, vice president of Exceltur.

This body figures in just over 5,300 million the amount that the sector needs for the next six months.

Hospitality and commerce have also done their accounts and request 12,500 million in transfers to hold out.

So far, the requests have fallen on deaf ears.

The Government has assured that in March it will give the details of the 11,000 million package for these sectors announced last week by President Pedro Sánchez.

But everything points to a plan to alleviate the debt of SMEs and reinforce capital, rather than direct aid.

This is the Executive's response to pressure - external and within the coalition government - to open the tap.

Especially after the ECB took the colors out of Spain by pointing it out as the country that dragged its feet the most when it came to getting the checkbook to help its productive fabric in 2020.

Repeated request

In this sense, the Economy and Finance have once again called on regional governments to give direct aid, after propping up their finances in 2020 and 2021. Last year, communities received resources from regional financing as if there were no crisis, in addition to transfers extraordinary events to cope with the increase in spending due to the pandemic.

This year there will also be an open bar: the autonomies will have about 140,000 million between financing and the highest margin of deficit, a record figure.

They will also have the bulk of the European React-EU fund, which will provide them with 8,000 million in 2021 and 2,000 in 2022 to strengthen health, education and social services, but which they will also be able to use for economic reactivation.

And from all this the Government asks them to get the money for direct aid.

The Minister of Economy, Nadia Calviño, assured last week that the communities will dedicate some 2,000 million of this fund to help companies.

This is how autonomies very dependent on tourism have already been arranged, as well as additional lines in their budgets.

Inland regions will also use the same scheme, as EL PAÍS has learned.

This is the case of Castilla-La Mancha, which will allocate about 155 million from the React-EU to transfers for SMEs and the self-employed.

Or from Extremadura, which will use between 50 and 60 million of the 187 it has allocated for the most affected sectors.

Despite this effort, those responsible for the trade and hospitality employers' associations argue that it will not be enough.

"It will be very short if most of the plan are reductions or more financing and there are only 2,000 million in direct aid," says José Luis Yzuel, president of the Hospitality Industry of Spain.

To which Pedro Campo, president of the Spanish Confederation of Commerce, adds: “The retail trade is at the limit, but not because of financing problems, but because of liquidity problems.

There is no consumption, there is no income, we continue with restrictions and with fixed costs to face each month.

That is why we need aid for now, not financing for next year ”.

Situation that is repeated in tourist companies, bars and restaurants.

Upset in the regions

The music that comes from the communities is not more optimistic either.

They are cautious, waiting to know the details of the plan.

But the discomfort generated since the end of the year in the autonomies of both the PSOE and the PP is evident as all the pressure of the design and payment of direct aid falls on the regional governments.

Even the possibility of drawing community funds does not seem to alleviate the tensions.

“The money from React-EU has not been distributed based on the importance and the fall in tourism GDP, the criteria are not adjusted for us to give that support.

For us it is a drama ”, laments the Minister of Tourism of an autonomy whose economic engine is that sector.

There are also differences with the way of designing the new package and communication with the autonomies.

The PP regions complain that they have not been consulted on the distribution of the React-EU —Hacienda used the same criteria used by the EU to assign it to the States: drop in GDP and unemployment.

"We are all giving aid, but they are insufficient for the losses of the most affected sectors," says the Minister of the Treasury of Castilla y León, Carlos Fernández Carriedo.

Javier Fernández-Lasquetty, his counterpart in the Community of Madrid, adds: “The Government wanted to give very large aid figures since the beginning of the pandemic.

But he didn't stop to think about how effective they were.

He was not thinking about the accounts of the companies, but about the polls of his party ”.

Thus, the latest government announcement creates as much expectation as skepticism.

The antecedents do not invite optimism: in the final part of 2020, other rescue plans were already announced with great fanfare that, in the end, proved insufficient.

And the haste in making them known also generated expectations in companies that the reality of public accounts could not assume.

And this time history threatens to repeat itself.

Zoreda, from

the

Exceltur tourist

lobby

, adds fuel to the fire in the pulse of the autonomies and central government: “If it is the communities that have to give direct aid, I hope that the Government will make an exceptional item available to them to meet these needs.

With what they already have will not be enough ”.

The regions cross their fingers to make it so.

Community support plans

The bulk of the autonomies foresees to give direct aid, many with charge to the React-EU.

These are some initiatives:

Balearic Islands.

It is the autonomy most affected by the crisis: its GDP fell 27% in 2020, according to an analysis by the Bank of Spain.

The Government already deployed direct aid in 2020. For the first quarter of this year, it has designed a plan of 110 million, 60 of them direct aid in collaboration with the municipalities and island councils.

Canary Islands.

In 2020, it gave 95 million in direct aid.

Today he plans to approve new non-refundable support for SMEs, the self-employed and the tourism sector for 165 million, which he plans to endorse React-EU, leaving open the possibility of calling new subsidies.

Valencian Community.

The initial distribution of its React-EU allocation includes a package of direct aid of 430 million for businesses forced to close or limit their activity.

The plan is added to other existing lines that have been expanded in the budgets, and to the 223 million in direct aid granted 2020.

Asturias.

It will allocate about 100 million to direct aid thanks to the European fund.

The first calls have € 74 million for tourism, hospitality, commerce, culture and sport, with grants ranging from 1,500 to 9,000 euros per professional or establishment.

Cantabria.

The bulk of your React-EU allocation will go to health and education, but there will be aid for travel agencies, innovation and digitization.

Madrid, Catalonia and Andalusia.

They are the regions that will receive the most money from React-EU, but they do not specify how they will use it.

Madrid ensures that it will include direct aid in its budgets, which it has not yet approved, like Catalonia.

Castile and Leon.

It has announced 50 million in direct aid to hospitality and tourism, but does not detail how it will use the React-EU, like Navarra, La Rioja, Aragón or Murcia.

The latter will give 35 million in direct aid to the hotel industry.

Castilla la Mancha.

It will use 155 million from React-EU for direct aid to SMEs, micro-SMEs and the self-employed in the most affected sectors.

Extremadura will give between 50 and 60 million to the same sectors.