MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Madrid mayor pledges not to allow Peronism 'fiscal populism' into Spain

Madrid mayor Isabel Díaz Ayuso condemned the Spanish Socialist government underlining that “here in Spain people want to be free, and make their decisions”

The mayor of Spain's capital Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, and a rising star among the conservative Popular Party has condemned the Spanish Socialist government accusing it of following Argentine Peronism populist policies, underlining that “here in Spain people want to be free”

The Madrid Assembly debate was triggered by a new tax on the rich, which the government of president Pedro Sánchez is planning to implement in a bid to balance the budget and supposedly help Spain pay for its energy bill and subsidize home bills.

Díaz Ayuso defined the bill as “fiscal populism” and accused president Sánchez of wanting to establish a “Peronist government” in Spain following on the steps of what is happening in Argentina.

“It's quite simple, you take money from the people, as the Peronists do, and then distribute it in the form of special payments, subsidies, aids”, the mayor said in the Madrid parliament. But “I refuse point blank that this kind of decadent economic policy be established in Spain, a fiscal populism that is ruining so many countries in the world”.

She added, “here is Spain people want to be free, they want to build on their own projects, they want to be making the decisions, with their money, their savings. Let me tell you that the small and medium companies in Spain can't stand it anymore, they can't stand so many costs, the margin of profits is ever so weaker, and this fiscal populist policy is going to end bankrupting companies. This will mean an end for employment and for jobs...”, underlined Madrid mayor.

“This is typical Peronism, they frist create poverty and then dependency on the State”, accused Díaz Ayuso. “And the Socialist government is not the government of majorities and much less the government of the real people who face their daily problems”

In December 2020, the Argentine Senate passed a bill taxing the wealthy, and referred to those who have assets of over the equivalent of a million US dollars with the purpose of using the funds to help finance measures to combat the pandemic.

Towards the end of 2021, the exceptional tax revenue collected several hundred million dollars although there were numerous court presentations trying to avoid the payment described as “confiscatory”. Although at the time the tax on the wealthy was temporary and exceptional, following the need of Argentina to repay IMF loans, the bill again surfaced but this time proposing it lasted for ten years.

In Spain the coalition government of president Sanchez called it the “solidarity tax”, and is proposed to last two years with a lowering of income taxes for people employed and pensioners. It is also a way to avoid clashing with a tax on assets which under Spanish law depends on each community, and in those regions ruled by the Conservative opposition of Diaz Ayuso, the local governments have applied up to 100% bonuses, such are the cases of Madrid, Murcia and Andalucía, Spain's largest electoral district and which is now under the rule of the Popular Party after 47 years of Socialists.

Díaz Ayuso anticipated she will appeal to the Constitutional Court since the so called “solidarity tax” or fiscal populism is a way of circumventing regions taxing powers.