Elvira Rodríguez: "Calviño damages the image of Spain by starting in its GDP figures"

Elvira Rodríguez, sectoral vice -secretary of the Popular Party, deputy for Madrid, former minister and former president of the CNMV, visits the wording of Voicepuli to analyze the complex economic situation of the country, with growth forecasts made trizas.Rodríguez criticizes the lack of transparency of the Government of Pedro Sánchez with European funds and the absence of dialogue with the main opposition party, and alerts on a "labor counter -reform" that instead of modernizing goes backwards, a pension reformthat he believes based on calculations that do not fit and a tax reform that doubts that it becomes done and if so, it expects that it will fall on the middle classes.

Question: This week has started the first big part associated with European funds.A macroproject expected by all, but institutions and experts warn that the arrival of money is being delayed too much.Why is European money reaching its destination?Do you think this is a risk to the economic recovery of Spain?

Answer: It is happening because they designed a very little adequate procedure to apply the resources that came from Europe and because they have [the Government] a lot of management inability.What the commission has just done is to approve in its conception of compatibility with European aids, but the belonging of the electric car that announced to bass drum and saucer there through spring, it still has a lot of travel because now you have to award in concurrenceThe different help lines.What they have said is that it has an amount of 3.000 million for the industrial part of the part and we will see how they design it.

When you talk to companies, they say they don't know how the funds are going to get.Therefore, it will still take an impact on the economy.At this time, of the 24.000 million present in the 2021 budget, there are no more than 8.000 million with the IGAE data, which go a month late.But in any case, those have not reached the economy either because most have gone to intermediate organisms.

Therefore, we are not seeing effective expense, nor are we seeing structural reforms that really remove obstacles to our economy to continue growing, which makes the execution of European funds quite disappointing.The growth they had calculated as a consequence of the application of the funds was around 2.9 GDP points, but have disappeared along the way.

Q: For money to flow, we need to fulfill a series of milestones and commitments with Brussels.Some legislative that will have to go through Congress.Do you see Sánchez with the ability to reach consensus?

A: What worries me is that it is regulating structural materials with real decrees laws, but this is a democratic anomaly.They are based on the fact that they are milestones that have to comply before December 31, but it is a need made.Since the plan elaborated on January 1, the government could have launched it in another way.The approval of laws is much more complicated and every time they want to do something, and to the budget tests I refer to my.

Q: In addition to the risk of delays, another concern is found in the use made of these Next Generation funds.What do you think of the aids released so far?Are they really transformative or are you afraid of public money?

A: They have launched very few.They have gone to the autonomous communities to manage aid for the energy rehabilitation of buildings, but the directors are telling us that they will have very difficult lace because they need significant co -financing of individuals and they will not have customers.There are many of the energy aids that are seen that they are not successful when they are taken to the market.There should be more aid to medium -sized companies with interesting projects that could have a future, to generate job creation and remain in time.That is missing and money can be won if the objectives that we must pursue are not met.You have to be more green and more digital, but the ultimate goal must be to generate sustainable growth and stable employment.To that would have to be directed the investments and structural reforms that are made.

Q: Spain is falling back in economic recovery.This has been expressed by both the OECD and the European Commission.But the government resists reviewing its forecasts, on which it bases next year's budgets.What do you think about this?

A: That is radically mistaken, because what it does is deteriorate its image and the country image.The country is not deteriorated by a responsible opposition that shows the things that are not well, the country is deteriorated by a government that is playing at what is not known what.The embedding in a figure and growth objective that has been reviewed by the European Commission in 30% for this year, and in a little more than 20% for next year, does not lead to anywhere.Spain needs foreign investment, but there is little legal certainty and that also harms us.

Q: Inflation follows its climb, driven by energy prices.Why has the government not been able to control them?Does inflation suppose an added problem to meet growth forecasts next year?

A: Inflation can lead us to get collection;But that collection is neither healthy nor is lasting nor sustainable in time.What it produces is that it retracts consumption in the medium term with serious damage to people, who have less for much more money.There are exogenous factors but we also have a light receipt that has a very high tax burden.We told them that 10%VAT could decrease structurally, that the generation tax was eliminated and that they would use the rights charged by the Government for CO2 emissions to reduce the invoice, but they have not done so.

This downward correction would favor many homes and small businesses and also lower inflation, because these companies have to impact on their prices the rise in costs.But the government has said that the fault is excessive benefits of companies, has made a royal decree law, which has had to correct with another royal decree law that does not solve problems, and is doing an energy regulation that is not adequateFor what we need.

Q: You denounced that the government hid the pact that had reached with Brussels in the recovery plan, shortly after the Executive published the 'Operational Arrangement'.They satisfied them?What else is being hidden (labor reform reports, etc..)?

A: This government is characterized by not understanding what is governance.The principles of transparency do not go with them.The normal thing is that when you do a recovery plan at such a delicate moment, in which you have to include structural reforms, you talk to the main opposition party to work together.That did not do it from the beginning.We met the plan because Vice President Calviño hung it in a tweet, a surprising thing.Nor do the autonomous communities know him, although they are matters of his competence.The Operational Arrangement are the requirements that for the payment of the first section puts Europe.

And when we have analyzed it, we have seen things that had not told us, which have to do with the reform of the pension system, labor, or with the toll payment of the highways.Nor do we have information on the exact games to which the 10 are allocated.000 million of the first section.If you analyze the letter of the Operational Arrangement, do not find it, there are no consigned and quantified items and it is more of the same.In Román Paladino, they do not have the right to do that, the Spaniards are entitled, I no longer speak as a party of the opposition, to know what the government is doing with that money, which has given Europe to the Spaniards, does notTo the government, he has given it for our good, for recovery.

Q: The European Commission has repeatedly praised the labor reform of the 2012 PP and its favorable effects on recovery.Has the government put a goal to Brussels including its repeal, or at least, parts of it, in the recovery plan?

A: I think we have not yet seen the end of the story, we have to see how far they arrive.They, the Government, glued to the requests of the unions, with a series of pillars that for them were inalienable but were incompatible with what Europe is asking for: on the agreements of the Rama companies, the faculty of companies to pick upof the agreement, the ultraactivity.

For them it was irrevocable, it was what the unions said, they said in that way that was harmful to the workers.They have not touched the compensation for dismissal, neither the ministry nor the unions, and Europe asked that measures be taken to resolve two things: the duality of the labor market, why we have so many temporary and so many fixed, and what is whatI was producing.

The solutions that the Government gives are very rare, because they are the usual: I now prohibit temporary work, but you cannot put doors to the field, it has to continue allowing causality, there are causes for temporary work, they admit, butThey add that if it lasts more than 6 months in the position, the employee becomes fixed, when the company has been commissioned 10 months, and they tell him to make a dubriven fixed, but the company is not worth it.They are with that mess.Europe also perceived that long -term unemployed are many and continue to increase and high ages and that we have a lot of youth unemployment.

He asked for employability mechanisms for these groups very affected by this unemployment situation.In addition, its structure is double just that the countries of our environment, with the same crisis.What happens to the Spanish market, which has a problem of growth and job creation.And also, in the meetings that I have with companies, they transmit that they offer jobs that do not find demand, there are many unemployed, but they do not find the profiles: the employability problem must be solved, in the young people who join for the first timeAnd in the elderly whose job has become obsolete, but they can and have the right to continue working.

This is what Von der Leyen said when they gave us the advance: to a question of a journalist about the labor reform, he spoke of employability, to ensure that people develop the necessary capacity for the jobs they could occupy.The government should be concentrated in that and not what they call, it does not cease to be grace, modernization of the labor market, when it is to go back, a counter -reform, not a reform.I think the last word has not been said, we will see what happens in four months.

Q: What does the PP defend for the pension reform?They advocated to link them to the CPI but then defend their 2013 reform that has not been applied ...

A: We defend our reform of the 13.They did not want the sustainability factor and said they were going to create a mechanism, the intergenerational equity mechanism.We said: okay, but the system has to be sustainable, you don't want mine, but you have to put an alternative that is sustainable.

The government has done a very rare thing, which the unions wanted.They have not been able to agre.Escrivá thinks that in 2023 there will be no longer because the expenses to the Treasury will pass and from there creates a fund that covers the future needs.Those calculations have not given them to us, that has not been shown, we stayed with ours, which Brussels said that square.

Q: Fiscal reform has been announced with important tax increases in perspective without being clear that it will be done in this legislature.What impact does it have on companies and investors and the image of Spain?

A: The figures do not add up to me, I think there is ideology here again, which is fatal to create a modern tax system that generates collection and does not hold growth.What matters is the collection, from the taxable bases, the wealth of the country, or a consumption that you want to discourage.Green taxes should not compute, their objective is zero collection, unless their objective is the collection, it is something else what they intend.In this context, it is true that tax systems must adapt to circumstances.But as what they are doing is ideology, what they are selling is something else, upload 8 points the fiscal pressure, and do not explain how.

In employment they do not mind not equating us with Europe but in fiscal pressure, yes, but it is a trap.What you have to look at is what taxes are paid in Spain and the effect of the submerged economy that generates collection but not GDP.Tell me how you can upload 80.000 million collection and where does it take it from.Of the rich, but to pay that in Spain they are not and those that were in Portugal, which has followed a completely different tax policy because it has been interested and who will pay it?, The middle class, the usual ones.Montero says he does not raise taxes to the middle class, but he has increased the tax on 50% insurance premiums.

Who pays for insurance taxes: the Spaniards with a car, our house and the SMEs, who pay the RC insurance.Are the rich?, No.Times do not come out, taxes cannot be created in budget laws, I do not know if we will have any more than these of 22, which carry small touch -ups, and I do not see a tax reform that will fall on the middle classesOn the eve of the regional elections, without counting on the generals, which, apart from Andalusia, falls in May 2023.We will see, the minister likes to sell what she will do, and that of regional financing.

Q: Do you think the reform of regional financing will be made?

A: No, if the tax system is going to change, change the foundations for making a new regional financing, because what they are distributing are the taxes that the Spaniards pay, we pay one that is distributed between administrations.We have the best example in Madrid, which has reduced the IRPF 0.5 points in all sections, it is the best example of a tax distributed: with 50% of the collection you can do what you want, unless they say that you cannotdo what you want because it does fiscal dumping.Let's see, do not mess with what I choose, if I decide to give subsidies to everyone, but under taxes, no, it is this absurd debate.

Q: Do not the PP barons share the position in favor of low taxes in Madrid as the Minister of Finance raises?

A: Montero we heard everything in the gallery.When he comes to the commission, he says there is no money, but then Sanchez gives a background of 12.000 million;He said we would have a new financing model at the end of the year, and has sent a study of 120 folios on tight population, about what nobody disagrees, but there is a subjective part, there is a debate, as he said with self -confidence in Congress:"Gentlemen of the PP, you have to solve the problems with your CCAA, I solve with mine, we all have the same problem".We know it, but all the life that has resolved it is the Ministry of Finance, which is the one who has the tools, not the political parties, we are not going to do the job.

Q: Is there a common position in the PP on the reform of regional financing?Are Madrid's requests with those of Andalusia or Galicia reconcilable?

A: They have been reconcilable all life, this has to be a model that is approved unanimously, at least in the internal work forum.They did not vote our model.I think Emiliano García-Page said that this has no more arrangement than the state arrives and on his part put money, nobody loses and those we need to win, we win.So far it has always done.When you lose collection, it is not a good time, it is what happened in 2008, the foundations fell and harmed the communities that were growing, those of the Mediterranean.

Q: And to those of the PP?

A: Yes, then adjusted populations were manipulated and everything else.It is not easy, but the ministry has to work, the only one that has tools, is not a problem of political parties, because the territories, the financing of basic services, has nothing to do with colors, has to do with citizen needs, this is structural.

Q: Does the PP contemplate an electoral advance of Pedro Sánchez before the government is forced to approve cuts?

A: Pedro Sánchez has the red button and calls elections when he comes best.My first sensation is that they will be in January 2024: the second semester of 2023 is the European Presidency and it does not seem appropriate to convene elections, it would be when it won.Will do it whenever you want and what you have to be is prepared.

Q: After the May elections in Madrid, the PP experienced significant growth in intention to vote in all surveys.Now, however, some stagnation is perceived.Is it affecting the controversy by the Congress of the Party in Madrid to the democopic evolution of the PP?

A: Well, I don't know, what is true is that we are working to convince the Spaniards that we are a reliable and safe alternative and Madrid has an expiration date.