The Basque PP threatens Casado with dynamiting the coalition with Citizens

The PP and Citizens (Cs) announced late Wednesday afternoon an agreement to run in coalition to the next Basque elections, on April 5, with the popular Alfonso Alonso as a candidate for lehendakari. The pact, as confirmed by sources of both parties, was pending some fringes, such as the name with which they would go to the polls. But less than 24 hours later and about to expire the deadline for the presentation of coalitions (this Friday at 00.00), it seems that the fringes were more than that and that the interlocution with the Basque PP has been short.

Sources of the popular in the community claim to have learned from the statements of the secretary of the parliamentary group of Citizens, José María Espejo, of the distribution of the lists, whereby Cs would obtain second place for Bizkaia and Álava. "That is unassuming because it does not correspond to reality. The reality is that we have nine deputies in the Basque Parliament, 11 in the general meetings and 55 councilors; Citizens, nothing. Lacks representation in the territory and if they presented themselves, they would continue without having it. The negotiation has to adjust to that reality, "say sources of the Basque PP.

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• Citizens yields and accepts the coalition with the PP in Euskadi despite Feijóo's rejection
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• Euskadi will assume the economic regime of Social Security

National PP sources, meanwhile, say that Citizens has advanced, because they had to "talk to many people." In addition, they point out that there is still time - until 00.00 on Friday - to permanently close the name of the coalition, the program and the distribution of lists. The national PP is optimistic and, in fact, prepares a public event to formalize the coalition with the presence of the president or the general secretary of the party.

Citizens insist that what was announced by José María Espejo this morning is what was agreed with the secretary general of the popular, Teodoro García Egea, "in the concrete terms in which it has closed with the negotiating team of the PP", point sources of the party. According to these same sources, in the conversations, the conservative formation did not ask them to wait to communicate the pact. "The problem is in the PP," they emphasize in Cs, waiting for the national leadership of the Popular Party to settle the matter with their Basque colleagues.

Citizens accept the Economic Concert

So far, the coalition has saved another of the pitfalls: the commitment to the foralism of the Basque PP, which Citizens had criticized in the past, although it already assumed it in the coalition in Navarra with the popular and UPN (Navarra Sum). Popular and liberal have agreed that the position on the Economic Concert is the same as the one they closed in Navarra: they commit to respect the economic regime, but with the requirement that the calculation of the Quota be done with "transparency" and "respecting the principle of solidarity among Spaniards, "according to Citizens. The Quota is the contribution that the Basque Country has to pay to the state coffers to defray the powers that the State provides for the benefit of the residents of this community as they have not been transferred. Arrimadas asked to abolish the Basque Country's own financing system when they jumped into national politics, in 2015, although they later modulated their position and started to question the calculation of the contribution, which they criticize in their electoral program of the last general elections for "arbitrary and unsupportive".

José María Espejo, general secretary of the parliamentary group of Cs and negotiator with the popular, said Thursday that the position on the Concert "is exactly the same" as that of the Navarra Suma coalition. "It is a case analogous to that of the Basque Country: there is a commitment to respect the issue, because it is reflected in the Spanish Constitution, but with the requirement that the calculations be made with absolute transparency, with absolute loyalty and always with respect for the principle of solidarity among all Spaniards, "he detailed. The assumption of the Concert is one of the "assignments" that Cs defends having assumed with the PP to prosper the pact.

Citizens have been gradually modulating their position on the Basque Economic Concert: Albert Rivera defended to suppress it in 2015, until he assumed that there are no majorities to eliminate it (it is included in the Constitution) and decided to criticize the calculation of the Quota. Rivera defined it as "cuponazo", a "privilege" and a "size". "We will end the privileges," proclaimed one of the electoral videos of Citizens in the generals of April 28.

In its last electoral program, Cs is committed to "end the privilege of the current arbitrary and unsupportive calculation of the Basque Quota" and replace the current system of five-year calculation, "opaque and politicized", with a stable methodology developed by the Authority Independent Fiscal Responsibility (AIReF). Cs voted against the Basque quota in Congress in November 2017, while the PP voted in favor. The popular criticized in that parliamentary debate that Citizens wanted to turn this contribution into "an element of electoral confrontation."

Espejo has not reneged on the term "cuponazo" that the party has used so many other times. Asked if he still thinks the concept is valid, he has answered yes. "It is a coupon when the rest of Spaniards do not have the transparent information of under what criteria it has been calculated and when it is negotiated with absolute opacity as we see, unfortunately, every day, in this House," he stressed, referring to the six deputies of the PNV.

Finally, Cs has decided to suspend the negotiation of the coalition with the PP in Catalonia waiting for the elections to be called and after the refusal of the president of the Xunta, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, to agree on a coalition in Galicia. Cs threatens to take revenge in Catalonia and offer the PP to integrate into its lists, as Feijóo has offered in Galicia. "It seems clear that you can not ask on a site what you do not give," said Espejo. "The situations are perfectly assimilable."