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Madrid
Friday, 2 August 2024, 13:14
The Spanish prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has been defending a potential deal between his Socialist party in Catalonia, the PSC, and republican independence party ERC.
The deal would see the PSC take over government in the region, with the help of ERC regional MPs' votes, after coming first in May's Catalan election but without an overall majority. The ERC membership needs to ratify the agreement today (Friday).
Some grandees in the Socialists have said the pact would be unacceptable as one of its main features is to allow the Catalan government to collect and administer all taxes itself, paying the Spanish state for the services it receives.
Up to now, Spain's central government collects taxes for all of Spain and distributes money down to the regions, (except in the Basque country and Navarre region which have ingrained historic rights to collect tax themselves).
The right to collect tax income has been demanded by Catalan secessionists for a long time. However Spain's regions, most of which are controlled by the opposition PP conservative party, see it as favouritism to Catalonia and a break in the unity of Spain.
Sánchez, speaking after his traditional summer meeting with the king in Mallorca, said on Tuesday that what was more important than the system of financing was "to have governments nationally and at regional level that create and work to strengthen public services."
At a press conference to review the government's record to date on Wednesday, he was grilled further, although the exact details of how the tax collection would work in practice have not been made clear, even, reportedly, to his Socialist PSOE's own leadership team.
"We are taking a step towards making the regional government structure federal, for sure," explained Sánchez, adding that he was very happy with the pact to govern in Catalonia.
The pressure on Sánchez this week was compounded by him being interviewed as a witness in an on-going corruption inquiry into his wife's alleged business dealings. A judge travelled to the PM's official La Moncloa residence. The opposition has called on Sánchez to resign and the PM has launched an official complaint against the investigating judge.
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