The Spanish government will condition the payment of the Autonomous Liquidity Fund (FLA) to whether the Catalan government spends "even a euro" for the referendum of independence planned for 1st October, the Minister of Education and government spokesman, Íñigo Méndez de Vigo, has announced. Each department of the Catalan government will have to justify their weekly expenses so that the central government verifies their use. The central government will therefore supervise the whole of the finances of the Catalan government.
According to sources at Moncloa, the official residence of Spain's prime minister, this "preventive measure" is necessary after the actions in recent weeks by Catalan "government radicals" placing individuals at the head of departments allegedly more committed to the referendum. "Yesterday even the number two at the Education department resigned," said one source. De Vigo has publicly denied it as a "new purge". At the same time, the new measure will put further pressure on the Catalan vice president and Minister of Economy, Oriol Junqueras. "It aims to create a very big problem," said the source. "It's a time bomb."
Spain's Department of Treasury and Public Administration will be responsible for verifying the new measure, which comes in to force immediately. It requires that on a weekly basis, high-ranking officials send a certificate to the Treasury detailing the costs and expenses of their departments, ministers and public entities. The civil servants and financial controllers of each department will be responsible for compiling and auditing the certificates.
From then on, several scenarios are possible.
If the information collected concludes that the referendum endorsement process has been financed, the "competent authorities" will issue a demand against those responsible. Sources at Moncloa highlight this because the weight of the agreement falls upon the civil servants, "who will obey the law" not to be sanctioned administratively. In that way, they insist that ministers must not do the task entrusted upon the civil servants, who will only face consequences if the required reports and certificates are not processed on a weekly basis.
Secondly, and in the event of non-compliance, the central government will implement the preventive new measures. "The FLA funding could be withdrawn to protect the prosperity and well-being of the Catalans", remarked Méndez de Vigo. The total forecast for 2017 is 3.6 billion euros. But at the same time, the public services of the Catalan government would also stop being funded temporarily. The spokesman did not want to explain during the press conference, nor in the corridors afterwards, who would be paying in the event of a suspension of the credit.
The agreement was made on Friday in the Delegate Committee on Economic Affairs, chaired by prime minister Mariano Rajoy, and this Saturday will be published in the government's Official State Gazette (BOE). Moncloa sources say that during the Cabinet Meeting, Rajoy made it known to the other ministers, and also to the Spanish deputy prime minister and minister of Home Affairs, Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría, even though the cabinet did not have to ratify it. De Vigo, however, was unaware if the Catalan government had received a note on the matter.
The Spanish government's spokesman insisted during the press conference that if Catalonia wants a referendum, "they will have to pay it", the leaders, and not with public money. "It is a referendum without: without urns, without budget, without guarantees, without ...," he reiterated. Sources from Rajoy's cabinet have scoffed at the measure proposed by Junqueras in an article this Friday in El Nacional, where he spoke about the possibility of creating a savings bank of resistance to pay for fines or other issues. "Here we are speaking about serious things", one source affirmed, ruling out the option.
This is not the first time that Moncloa has acted in this way. A similar agreement was approved in November 2015 that conditioned the disbursement of FLA funding. The difference with the agreement approved this Friday is that the reports in 2015 had to be sent before the 15th of every month, and not weekly. The FLA has funded 67 billion euros in Catalonia since 2012. It is considered of vital importance, and served to finances the autonomies after the crisis and public debt.