• Nieto calls for the "urgent" call of the Fiscal and Financial Policy Council and describes as "false" the arguments of the Minister of Finance to deny financing to the Autonomous Communities
• Points out that the current system created by the PSOE is "torture" for Andalusia
At a press conference at the headquarters of the Andalusian PP, Nieto pointed out that regional financing is "vital" and assured that the management of public resources "can be seriously affected by an attitude that we do not understand on the part of the Government of Spain and , particularly, the Minister of Finance, María Jesús Montero”.
On this point, Nieto has accused Minister Montero of "making, for a long time, skilful use of half-truths and resorting, more and more frequently, to lies to argue ideological positions that are not typical of a person responsible for the Treasury.
Nieto also recalled that Manuel Chaves, as Andalusian president, José Antonio Griñán, as Minister of Finance, and María Jesús Montero herself, as Minister of Health, defended "cloak and dagger" a system of the then president Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero who "is a real torture" for Andalusia. A system that in 2009 was only supported by the PSOE and ERC and that "represents an imbalance for Andalusia of 4.000 million euros per year."
However, Nieto has added, "now Mrs. Montero comes to us with blackmail in which she says that if we want public services to be maintained, we support the investiture of Pedro Sánchez."
The spokesman for the Popular Group in the Andalusian Parliament has stated that "we do not doubt that there are difficulties with a government in office and without budgets in force, something that is Pedro Sánchez's fault, but it is essential that the Fiscal Policy Council meet, as Juanma Moreno has requested, to dialogue, work together and move forward with a viable solution for all the autonomous communities, not only the Andalusian one”. Likewise, he has stressed that "what we are not going to tolerate is the blackmail that endangers 1.350 million for Andalusia this year, of which more than 1.000 go to social policies."
In this sense, Nieto has criticized the "lies" of the Minister of Finance, and has assured that the reports of the State Attorney "cannot be oral, there is no concept of oral report that Minister Montero has invented."
For Nieto, Montero "has lied for several weeks saying that he had that report when now it turns out that that report arrived yesterday," a report, he added, "of which its content is yet to be seen."
Likewise, he has stressed that Montero "has lied to us when he says that a government in office cannot pay the advances on account" and has recalled that in 2016 the government in office of the PP "paid the advances on account, and it did so throughout that period", for which reason he has described the arguments put forward by Montero as "false". Likewise, he recalled that the PP government "saved the autonomous system" by endowing the Autonomous Liquidity Fund (FLA) with 170.000 million.
Also, Nieto has reminded the head of the Treasury of the "famous social Fridays, in which commitments were made by a government in office that compromised another possible government." "This can be done and guarantee the financing of the autonomous communities, right?" Nieto asked, stressing that "it is not worth always lying as Montero, Pedro Sánchez and the PSOE try to do".
"We are not going to accept this blackmail or that Mrs. Montero relies on half-truths or lies to argue what is impossible to sustain," he assured, while considering it "necessary" to open the "dialogue" .
For this reason, he concluded, "we demand that the Fiscal and Financial Policy Council be convened urgently, that it be debated at the national level and that a solution be sought." Finally, it has advanced that the PP will take an initiative linked to the regional financing system to the first plenary session of the new session of the Andalusian Parliament.
