The general secretary of the PP of Malaga, José Ramón Carmona, has asked today the Malaga mayors of all political persuasions, also from the PSOE, who rebel against the Minister of Finance, María Jesús Montero, for the "robbery" of the town councils, after prohibiting them from using the surplus generated last year for investments and forcing them to use it to pay off debt.
This was stated before the Government Subdelegation in Malaga together with the president of the Council of Mayors of the party, Margarita del Cid, where she highlighted that "It is logical that any mayor, if he truly defends his residents, would rebel against Minister Montero to demand that the savings the city councils have made, the result of their good management, be reinvested in the municipalities where they were obtained.".
Carmona, who was accompanied by around thirty Popular Party councilors from the province, criticized Montero for "only trying to collect and collect, establishing himself as the government that has raised taxes the most for Spaniards and tightened the belts the most for the middle and working classes," alluding to the 97 tax increases Sánchez has implemented since he took office, reaching a new revenue collection record each year in the province of Málaga.
"Montero has become the new collector of the Frac", the Popular Party leader argued, criticizing him for saying that "the higher tax burden is compounded by the injustice of not even allowing city councils to use these surpluses to make investments in their municipalities and for the benefit of their residents."
Furthermore, he warned that the socialist minister, with this prohibition, “In reality, what he wants is to keep the savings of the municipalities, as he already tried in 2020."and has warned that "we will not allow it." Montero, according to Carmona, "once again demonstrates his lack of sensitivity to the real needs of municipalities."
Thus, he has announced an institutional offensive, with motions in the town halls, to inform citizens and also for the parties to position themselves regarding this "Minister Montero's second attempt to raid municipal coffers to pay for political favors".
The PP denounces that Montero prevents local councils from reinvesting in their residents.
For his part, Del Cid has denounced that Montero "has decided to interfere with local autonomy and, therefore, is preventing municipalities from using their treasury surpluses to make financially sustainable investments.", claiming that “there are two reasons for this.”
Thus, he first pointed to "political blackmail," noting that "the government, due to its inability to reach agreements with its partners, wants to use local councils as an excuse for this blackmail, but it forgets that the victims are not local authorities, but residents, who are left without these investments in their municipalities."
"It's our neighbors who are going to suffer this frontal attack on local autonomy by María Jesús Montero; but besides the political motive, there's a real motive."," Del Cid added, warning of the Sánchez administration's intention to "continue going into debt and paying favors to those who keep them in power, leaving municipalities with no capacity to do anything."
The popular leader, who has also reproached the Government for failing to update the PIE by 13%, has also criticized "Montero and the PSOE's lies in trying to sell debt forgiveness to Andalusia as a solution to the serious situation of underfunding that the community is suffering.".
In this regard, he stressed that "today we know that the Socialists have no intention of addressing the problem of underfunding, because the only short-term solution for local governments to have investment capacity was to let us use those surpluses, and Ms. Montero has said no to that."
Finally, Del Cid stressed that "there is a constitutional mandate that is being violated, which is to respect local autonomy," pointing out that "Montero doesn't seem content with the presumption of innocence; he also wants to pursue local autonomy, and in the face of that, he'll always find himself confronted by the mayors of the Popular Party, who will not allow our citizens' investment money to be taken from us without any criteria, just because of a letter.", it is finished.
