“Sánchez can continue passing decrees and maintain his fiscal greedbut we have a successful model, which is the Community of Madridand it is normal that the autonomies in which we govern want to follow in his footsteps”, explains a deputy of the economic team of the PP. His party has stepped on the throttle this week and three communities in which he governs (Andalusia, Murcia and Galicia) have announced that they will partially or totally discount the wealth tax and in all those dyed blue (also in Castilla y León and Madrid) there will be income tax reductions. The leader of the popular, Alberto Núñez feijoo, is relying on the room for maneuver that the autonomies have with certain taxes to counter Pedro Sánchez’s speech “against the rich” and “show the Spaniards what his tax reduction plan is”, point out sources from the direction of the P.P. In Genoa they trust that some baron of the PSOE will follow them and thus break their unity of discourse towards the regional elections in May.
“When have you seen Andalusia leading an economic debate?” Moreno boasts these days
The first conservative to open the ban was on Monday Juanma Dark, president of the Junta de Andalucía. He did it in Madrid, territory of Isabel Díaz Ayuso (who did not attend the conference), and in front of the boss. Moreno, according to sources from his team, closed with Feijóo the week before when and how he would make the announcement. After the Andalusian leader came on Thursday Fernando Lopez Miras (Murcia) saying that he will also put an end to that tribute in the coming months and, on Friday, Alfonso Wheel (Galicia), which specified that it will raise the bonus from 25% this year to 50% next year.
“When did you see Andalusia leading a economic discussion?“, boasts these days Dark In private. Spurred by the absolute majority of him and in total connection with the leader of the PP, the Andalusian politician is grown. “If Andalusia can compete with Madrid and its low taxes, why shouldn’t it?” he wonders.
La Moncloa believes that the “destructive” race of the PP autonomies benefits it to contrast the two models
The answer does not come from Puerta del Sol, where Ayuso has preferred to keep a low profile and applaud the decision even though the relevance that Moreno is acquiring within the party, if not within the Sánchez government, stings him. The Executive rejects the “destructive” fiscal race of the autonomous governments of the PP, with the consequent drop in collection to maintain public services, and celebrates that the conservatives “have fallen into the debate”, after weeks in which Sánchez has charged against the “powerful”, has accused Feijóo of only defending the interests of “those at the top” and has promoted the creation of new taxes on banks and electricity companies.
“This debate is going very well for us because it reinforces the picture of where each one is. After the defeat in Andalusia, we are highlighting our ideological framework and the PP distances itself from the working class with those decisions,” Moncloa sources point out. . The debate has begun to take place when there are eight months left to start the electoral cycle with municipal and regional in May and, at the end of 2023, the general ones. And in this electoral key, Treasury sources recall the case of Mariano Rajoy who, after campaigning in 2011 with the tax cut, came to the presidency and had to retract everything due to the delicate situation that public finances were going through. The deficit reached 9.4% that year, according to Eurostat.
The IMF recommendation
At the moment, despite the war in Ukraine whose end does not seem close and an economy damaged by covid that is still present, Feijóo wants to repeat Rajoy’s strategy and presents himself as the savior. “Spain, in my opinion, with this economic policy, cannot last five more years,” he said on Friday sitting in a forum with José María Aznar.
The PP wants to avoid analyzing the tax battle from the national point of view and its leaders refuse to talk about the internal competition that is created between territories while the International Monetary Fund and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) are calling for an end to tax competition between countries. “Let Sánchez charge the wealth tax as he did [José Luis Rodríguez] Zapatero in 2008”, they respond in the Junta de Andalucía. The socialist president recovered it later, in 2011, due to the drop in income due to the crisis, and Rajoy accused him of doing so due to electoral calculations.
100,000 foreigners
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Moreno even pointed to Madrid and Catalonia as territories from which to attract great wealth. He did not dwell so much on another objective that he is also looking for: the Andalusian Government considers that it has a problem with the more than 100,000 foreigners who in the last 15 years have acquired a home in the region and live for many months of the year, but do not dare to register (according to their calculations, they have only done 17,000). Moreno trusts that many of them, mainly British, French, Portuguese and Russians, will reside all year round and pay their taxes in Spain.
After the Andalusian leader’s announcement, Moncloa announced the creation of a tax on large fortunes that will be temporary. Until now, only United We Can defend it, but the Minister of Finance and Deputy Secretary of the PSOE, María Jesús Montero, now defends her suitability.