That Catalonia receives less money than it would if it were an independent country is beyond all discussion. This has been, perhaps, a battle lost by successive Catalan governments in terms of explaining that, beyond their own ranks, the welfare of all citizens was at stake and very much compromised by a series of norms that reduce Catalonia's room for manoeuvre, because it does not have access to the resources of its own that it should.
The financial suffocation that Catalonia is suffering from is, fundamentally, the result of by two variables: the chronic fiscal deficit that causes around 16,000 million euros annually to be taken to Madrid, never to return. To hide this, the Spanish treasury stopped publishing fiscal balances. Secondly, the financing system under which 15 of Spain's 17 autonomous communities are governed - with Euskadi and Navarra having their own financing system through the so-called quota and economic concert - has been due for an update since 2014 but no minister has dared to even present a new proposal.
In addition, there is a third way to cream off Catalonia's income, which is through the actual execution of the investments planned in the Spanish government budget, which is extraordinarily low year after year - for example, in 2021, only 35.7% of the budgeted amount was actually spent, that is, around a third, while in Madrid it was 187%, almost double the scheduled amount. The result was that, last year, Catalonia received 739.8 million euros in this area, while in Madrid the figure was 2,086 million.
For this reason, when this Thursday the Spanish treasury announced the balance of the financing model for the year 2020, it was possible to check once again that a classic result of the system continues to exist: Catalonia was the second territory in its contribution to the financing system per capita, and by contrast, it remains in tenth position in terms of the resources received. In terms of percentages, Catalonia is 17 points above average in terms of the income contributed, while the subsequent redistribution of the system places it 1.5 percent below the average.
Although at various times the need to change the system has been raised - in fact, the current minister Montero wants to present a new proposal based on population - the reality is that the one currently in force was approved by the Socialist prime minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero in 2009, in the midst of the global financial crisis, when the Catalan government was presided over by José Montilla, with Antoni Castells as his minister for the economy and ERC being part of the PSC-led Catalan government, with the alternative left of ICV also there. The fervor of the Catalan government on July 16th, 2009 can certainly not be found in some of its members 13 years later.
Economics professor Santiago Niño Becerra is one of the experts who has always expressed surprise that the political discourse in Catalonia is not permanently focused on the economic plunder it is suffering. The road to independence must not leave aside the claim, based on the autonomous community system, of the money to which Catalonia is entitled. This is the only framework under which, as things currently stand, the welfare of Catalans can be improved and the injustice committed from Madrid can be denounced.