Palau de la Generalitat Valenciana.MÒNICA TORRES
Nobody can accuse the Valencians of not having patience. We have had it far more than our public accounts could bear. We have suffered seven extensions of the current financing model, which since 2014 has yet to include new distribution criteria to compensate for the incomprehensible lack of resources suffered by Murcia and, especially, the Valencian Community. We have hard-won that when defining “under-financing” the RAE speaks of the unfair situation that we Valencians and Valencians suffer. The numbers of the Ministry, the AIREF, the Bank of Spain and any expert who has studied the system say so.
However, now it is the obligation of administrations to guarantee that everyone - regardless of their place of residence - has the opportunity to get out of the economic crisis in which we find ourselves and face the recovery on equal terms.
Patience ends up wearing thin.
The numbers are clear and the claim is well known: Article 156 of the Constitution is being systematically breached, which obliges the State to guarantee the financial sufficiency of the autonomies to face their fundamental public services, and the equity between the citizens of the different territories. .
We cannot bear any more discrimination because the situation is extreme.
It is urgent to find a solution.
Valencian society, united, says enough.
In 2020, the best-financed CCAA closed the year with a surplus of 0.5%, while the Community had a deficit of 1.2%, according to data from the Ministry of Finance.
And that public spending per Valencian is 16% lower.
The problem is only a lack of income.
The difference in financing per adjusted inhabitant now exceeds 30% between the best financed and the Valencian Community (more than 700 euros per capita).
Make numbers.
They haven't come out for us in years.
Resorting to debt is our only way to avoid a deterioration of fundamental services.
We are the autonomy with the highest debt in relation to GDP.
The FLA is an assisted and punctual respiration that we should not need on a recurring basis.
And there is also something that we are clear about: we are not guaranteed even sufficiency (it is true that in 2021 the State has increased funding to the CCAA as never before, but the autonomous regions have a structural deficit of more than 1%); nor equity (because the differences have consolidated a status quo with which we receive much less resources than the Spanish average). Despite everything, we will continue to guarantee equal opportunities and a way out of the crisis for our citizens.
This Tuesday, the
Plataforma per un Finançament Just
returns to Madrid to demand resources that equate us to the average.
The Ministry of Finance is aware that it must present a reform proposal during 2021 where discrimination is not contemplated.
But the Congress of Deputies has the obligation to approve it as soon as possible.
It is your honor, with your votes, on whom it depends that we Valencians and Valencians have the same opportunities to overcome this pandemic.
Vaccines have allowed economic recovery to advance.
That the underfinancing does not weigh down that of the Valencian Community.
Vicent Soler is Minister of Finance and Economic Model of the Generalitat Valenciana
