“They are not trying to advance the autonomous state that we gave ourselves from 1978, but to destroy it and replace it with an asymmetrical confederal model where some negotiate bilaterally with the central power perks and preferential treatment outside the common model.” This is how the regional presidents of the PP reject the reform of the financing of Catalonia that the PSOE and ERC have agreed to implement for the investiture of Salvador Illa at the head of the Generalitat in a manifesto in which not a single alternative proposal is offered to a model that both the party and the barons point out as outdated and ineffective.

The manifesto, announced in the morning, was published just after four in the afternoon, and states that the agreement between the PSC and ERC “points to the waterline of our autonomous model of equality and solidarity, by proposing to exclude Catalonia from the common fund of the autonomous communities”.

The document refers to the “blackmail of a few” to achieve a system that will be “imposed” on the rest by “a national government willing to do anything to retain power.” “They do not hesitate to use Catalonia and the Catalans as a bargaining chip,” the text points out.

What the PP does not offer is an alternative to a financing model that is criticized by both the party and its national and regional leaders. In fact, the manifesto is very careful not to renounce specific promises that the Government has made, such as the individual renegotiation of the debt that the regional executives have with the central Executive and that The PP barons not only do not rejectbut are willing to take it upon themselves.

Some have already publicly called for their own bilateral meetings with the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez. Others with the Vice-President and Minister of Finance, María Jesús Montero. And there are those who, like the Andalusian Juan Manuel Moreno, are calling for transfers similar to those being negotiated with Catalonia, such as the commuter train service, against the criteria expressed by his party.

The PP accepts that there are particularities in the current financing of the autonomous communities. And it defends this. “We believe in the particularity of each Autonomous Community, but not in inequality and lack of solidarity,” states the manifesto, which also does not anticipate a proposal in the immediate future. The PP barons will attend the call of Alberto Núñez Feijóo to a meeting in Madrid next Monday to “address this moment of national urgency and begin to articulate a democratic response in all areas within our reach.”