Nine million is a tiny part of the 140,000 million from European funds for the recovery that Spain will receive. Barely 0.0064% of the total. But those nine million can well be taken as an example of what the distribution of aid represents, of the disunity and mistrust between territories and between the two main parties, of an opposition focused on eroding President Pedro Sánchez and of a central government not As transparent as it should be. The Madrid’s community has submitted a appeal to the Supreme Court against what he considers an “arbitrary” allocation of the aforementioned nine million to four autonomous communities (Basque Country, Navarra, Valencian Community and Extremadura) for employment policies. The Madrid government criticizes that this amount has been distributed by royal decree, regardless of what was agreed at the corresponding sectoral conference, that is, in an additional way and not agreed with the rest of the autonomies. With this movement, the Madrid president, Isabel Diaz Ayuso, progress has been made in the war for the distribution of funds, before which the leader of the PP, Paul Married, he was only able to join. The leader of the Popular Party had no other option if he did not want to lose his political profile in the struggle with his rival within the party. However, although Casado points to a “finger distribution” that “can lead to corruption”, and supports the actions of the communities governed by the PP against the management of European funds, for the moment only the Community of Madrid has went to court. Other regions, like Galicia Y Castile and Leon, have chosen to exhaust the political and administrative route first. It could well be due to the limited chance of success in court, as Moncloa maintains.
The division between communities before the distribution of funds, in two blocks depending on whether the popular or socialists (or one of their partners) are in the regional government, reflects the partisan struggle to control the lever of economic recovery. In the background, the long electoral campaign that has been launched with the regional elections in Castilla y León next February and that will culminate in 2023 with the general and municipal elections. The socialist barons charge against the judicialization of European aid by the PP, whom they accuse of damaging Spain’s image in Europe. Although the first opposition party is not only moved by the search for a “fair” distribution and also intends to make political gains, the demand for greater transparency in the processes where the Administration intervenes, it is difficult to criticize. Citizens and their representatives have the right to demand that doubts about the use of public resources be clarified, and governments have the obligation to account for this.
Regarding the European funds, there is still another matter, which is the delay in the processing of the bill by the Government itself. A year of blocking a law that was supposed to be urgent, because PSOE and Podemos have extended the deadline for submitting amendments up to 38 times. The rest of the parties cannot thus introduce modifications, in what, in the eyes of Catalan and Basque nationalists, is an attempt to recentralize management of some funds that should be in the hands of the autonomies. And while the battle for the power to manage 140,000 million euros is being waged, the aid reaches its final recipients, companies and workers, by drops, to the greater despair of all.
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