The XXVII Conference of Presidents, held this Friday in Santander, ended without concrete agreements, reflecting the division between the central government and the autonomous communities, especially those governed by the PP, which criticized the lack of planning and results of the meeting.
The summit, which began with a breakfast with King Felipe VI, was marked by criticism of President Pedro Sánchez’s announcement to address the cancellation of regional debt outside the reform of the financing model. The Catalan president, Salvador Illa, was one of the few to describe the meeting as a success, highlighting the acceptance of his proposal to hold the next meeting in Barcelona. In contrast, PP regional leaders, such as Juanma Moreno (Andalusia) and Fernando López Miras (Murcia), described the summit as a “lost opportunity”.
Debt forgiveness: the focus of controversy
Sánchez’s announcement to convene a Fiscal and Financial Policy Council in January to address the regional debt write-off was the most controversial issue. PP leaders, such as Aragon’s Jorge Azcón and Madrid’s Isabel Díaz Ayuso, rejected the proposal, calling it a “patch” designed to benefit the Government’s pro-independence partners, such as ERC, which agreed to the partial cancellation of 20% of the Catalan debt with the FLA. Ayuso also insisted on protecting Madrid’s fiscal autonomy against what he considered “threats” of tax increases.
Migration crisis and shortage of health personnel
The conference agenda also included proposals for managing the migration crisis. The president of the Canary Islands, Fernando Clavijo, and the lehendakari proposed an extraordinary distribution of unaccompanied migrant minors, but left without concrete answers. According to Clavijo, the lack of frontal rejection to his proposal “opens a thread of hope”. Another central point was the deficit of health personnel, for which Sánchez announced a transfer of 223 million euros in 2025, in addition to the expansion of MIR places and the financing of health professions. However, several regional presidents demanded that the homologation of foreign degrees be speeded up and that resources be increased as a matter of urgency.
Housing and disaster relief
The central government proposed to shield the public nature of housing financed with state resources. PP leaders considered these measures as not very concrete and reiterated their demands to reduce taxes on the purchase of first homes and to fight squatting. In the context of the aid for the hurricane that affected Valencia, the Valencian president, Carlos Mazón, denounced that the only proposal was “to take European funds away from the rest of the communities to give them to Valencia”, causing general discontent among the attendees.
