A Bleak Time Ahead for Valencia Regional Budgets

Having marked 100 days in office last weekend, those expecting the new PP-VOX government of Valencia will solve all of the problems they identified in the region may now face a winter of discontent, as the president of the Generalitat, Carlos Mazón, has announced that the budgets for 2024 will not be as generous across the region as before.

The official budgets will be presented imminently, but he Mazón revealed this week that his executive will not follow in the footsteps of the previous PSPV-PSOE led coalition and will opt for much more contained budgets for 2024, far from the continued expansive format carried out by the previous government.

Of course, as is always the case in these situations, the blame is always put on the previous administration, and Mazón is no different. “We are heading towards first budgets that are very tough, due to a regrettable inherited economic situation, with the worst debt and the worst deficit in history, with the worst investment of a socialist government in history. Therefore, with extraordinary accounts difficult,” stated the president of the Generalitat. A warning that, in addition to complying with the recipe of the head of the Consell to “eliminate everything that is left over in the Administration”, also coincides with a context of adjustments that the European Union has already begun to demand.

That said, elements of the financial operation which the previous government operated under were actually leftovers from the PP government before, some of the budgets prepared in 2015 were based on a formula that was already used in the last PP executive chaired by Alberto Fabra. In 2015, the debt stood at 18%, which the replacement government then managed to reduce to 4%.

In any case, the idea of ​​the current president of the Generalitat is aimed at designing accounts that reflect a more realistic spending forecast than the one made by the previous coalition, even if that means applying a reality check with respect to investments. Of course, both Mazón and the Minister of Finance, Ruth Merino, have publicly insisted that there will be no cuts in fundamental services, such as Health, Education or Dependency.

That said, Mazón assured that his government will be “very bold and brave” in applying “cuts in unnecessary spending,” although he stressed that these adjustments will not affect public services, which will be “reinforced.” In this way, the president of the Generalitat publicly admitted for the first time that the philosophy of the accounts will not only avoid grandiloquence, but will probably have a restrictive and withdrawn character.

“We will tell the truth of what we are finding to the Valencians, but that will not be an excuse to move forward,” he proclaimed, to ensure that from the current Consell “a path of recovery, openness, open arms and impulse to investment, which will facilitate social cohesion”.

A perspective not shared by the opposition forces. Thus, the former president and leader of the PSPV-PSOE, Ximo Puig, recalled Mazón’s recent fiscal measures: “When taxes are lowered for those who have the most and a process of fiscal confiscation is carried out” it is evident that “there are problems when it comes to address redistributive policies”. “The inheritance received has been that all the economic and social indicators are better than those left by the PP,” concluded Puig.

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