The Spanish center-right Partido Popular (PP) has complained that the government is overwhelmingly directing European funds to municipalities governed by the socialist party, in what seems to amount to systematic political discrimination.
In this regard, the PP has provided a breakdown of different areas eligible for funding. In the area of tourism stimulation, for example, it claimed that 46.84% of the subsidies have been assigned to entities managed by the socialist party. Contrastingly, those regions governed by the PP have only received 20.5% of these funds, with other parties accounting for 31.72%.
Even this latter amount, however, is to go principally to the socialist party’s political allies, namely separatist parties and those of the far-left. In the Basque and Catalan regions alone, 26 projects, largely involving separatist parties, have been approved for financing, compared to the 46 projects involving the center-right spread across the whole of the country.
The same is true of funding aimed at benefiting commercial activities. In this area, 48.77% of funds have gone to socialist administrations, representing €50.2 million, compared to 31.40%, corresponding to €32.4 million, for the center right, and 19.79% for other parties. Of the 110 approved projects accessing these funds, 62 were presented by socialist mayors, and 26 by mayors belonging to the PP.
The same pattern favoring benefaction for socialist-led municipalities over those governed by the PP repeats across various areas of funding, including sustainable urban markets (45.2% compared to 32.15%), sustainable rural markets (63.2% compared to 26.6%), and investment for areas prone to receiving high tourism (53.2% compared to 30.6%).
Responsibility would presumably fall on the Ministry of Industry and Tourism, the entity charged with approving funding on a project-by-project basis.
The PP will now set up an “observatory” in order to keep track of the situation, and has pledged to support any regional or municipal entities wanting to take legal action against the government.
