The PP has found a new battlefield against the Government around the largest and most complex project that Spain faces in the coming years: the execution of the 140,000 million euros of European recovery funds after the pandemic. And the battle is not going to be just political. The popular will also go to court. The president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, has marked the step with the first appeal presented before the Supreme Court against a decree of the Ministry of Labor that has granted nine million euros for projects to four autonomous communities —none of the PP— , and after it all the popular regional governments announced yesterday that they are studying bringing the Executive to justice, a path that the 136 popular municipalities with more than 25,000 inhabitants also threaten to follow.
Those nine million, they reproach in La Moncloa, are 0.08% of the funds distributed to the autonomies. Madrid, specifically, has received 1,213 million, 12% of the 11,246 distributed to the communities. The autonomies manage 46% of the funds, and Madrid is one of the most benefited. Practically all of that money has been distributed with the consensus of the autonomies, but these nine million Work, a very small amount in the sea of funds, have been distributed to innovative employment pilot projects in four autonomies without going through a debate in a sectoral conference with all the autonomies. If they work, they will spread to others. The Executive encourages Madrid to present projects to also access these funds, but recalls that this community has not yet opened the calls for some of the funds that have already been transferred, such as the energy rehabilitation program for buildings.
In La Moncloa they are very upset because they understand that Madrid, and behind the leadership of the PP, has looked for a minimum nook to try to question the funds not only in Spain but before the European Commission.
In the Executive they are convinced that the judges will reject the initiative and the European Commission, which has already been very strict in recent months in the previous controls, will agree with them. But the PP’s strategy is fundamental and the Executive is preparing for a long battle, although it does not bother him at all that the focus is on the funds, the central issue on which Pedro Sánchez wants to pivot the political agenda.
In fact, this Thursday the president, although he did not mention the controversy, dedicated almost his entire speech at an economic event at Spain Investors Day to the funds and the revolution they will bring. “In six years Spain will invest the same as in 34 years of life of the cohesion funds, which completely changed the country,” he explained.
The popular leadership had been studying for some time how to sink its teeth into European funds and mobilized yesterday after the passage of Ayuso. Pablo Casado did not take long to put himself at the head of the revolt questioning the distribution “by finger”. “It is patronage and can lead to corruption,” he charged to the indignation of the Government, which points him out for harming Spain with an unfounded assessment.
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In parallel, Ayuso has once again taken the lead in the PP with the first appeal before the courts for the distribution of European funds. The Madrid president considers that the distribution of nine million euros from the Ministry of Labor to four communities – the Valencian Community, Extremadura, Navarra and the Basque Country – destined to finance pilot employment projects for vulnerable groups has not followed objective criteria, and that it has been thus to favor these autonomies governed by the PSOE and PNV against others of the PP such as Madrid. In La Moncloa they speak of the “great manipulation” that the PP is using this case to “try to question the execution of the entire plan” and they see it as ridiculous to think that there may be political interest in funds that amount to two million euros for these autonomies.
“It is little money, but it is a lot. And it’s not a matter of amount, but of procedure”, opposes Elvira Rodríguez, deputy secretary of Economy of the PP and head of the team put in place to try to control the funds. The execution has really started a few months ago and the PP is now beginning to have “critical mass” to control the distribution, admits Rodríguez, so the battle has just begun.
Genoa had formed the group led by Rodríguez a few months ago. And Casado had already focused on the fund management system, demanding that it be assumed by an independent agency instead of an interministerial commission, although no EU government has decided to outsource the management of a strategic project of such caliber, beyond to be advised by expert committees. But Ayuso has taken the initiative with the first action before the courts and, after it, the rest of the autonomous governments of the PP announced that they are studying similar initiatives.
The PP offensive will also be municipal, and at least 136 mayors of medium-sized cities are going to take the Government to court, says Jorge Azcón, mayor of Zaragoza and spokesman for the PP in the FEMP, for which the Executive is going to have to face an avalanche of resources in justice. “We believe that the funds are being distributed with much more political than technical criteria”, denounces Azcón, who questions the distribution of the Government of Aragon to its City Council. “Although Zaragoza accounts for more than half of the population of Aragon, the regional government has given us zero resources of the 28 million it has received for sustainable mobility, and zero of the 30 million for tourism,” he complains.
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