Catalan premier reacts to the crisis

On Tuesday the Catalan regional premier, Artur Mas, announced that the regional budget for 2012 will include a package of revenue-raising measures and a severe cutback in public spending in Catalonia - the second since his party, the center-right CiU nationalist bloc, returned to power. Mas has chosen CiU's good electoral results as a suitable background against which to announce economic measures proportionate to the gravity of the crisis. It was what he had to do, and he has shown the agility and determination to be expected of governments in a situation as exceptional as the present one.

The speed of Mas' response contrasts with the silence of Prime Minister-elect Mariano Rajoy, though naturally the two are not in the same institutional situation. The Popular Party (PP) leader can point to the fact that, though Zapatero is now only an acting prime minister, the work of government is still his responsibility. Yet the threats to the national economy demand that the constitutional procedures for the changeover of power be accompanied by active political initiatives. An outgoing government is in no position to convey the messages necessary to mitigate the growing pressure on Spain's debt; while this position does belong to the man who will be prime minister in a matter of weeks - a short time in normal circumstances, but an eternity in view of the behavior of the risk premium and the markets.

Mas announced a rise in taxes, putting a stop to the irresponsibility with which political parties have treated fiscal matters before the crisis, and the electoralism with which they made unrealistic promises during the campaign. This is not the time for experiments in increasing revenue by means of reducing fiscal pressure; rather, public administrations must demand of the citizens an equitable contribution to the collective effort. As CiU itself has realized, this demand is not necessarily followed by a punishment at the polls; which does happen when the public perceives that it has not been equitable. For this same reason, the struggle against tax evasion is a top priority.

Mas has also announced a new salary cutback for top officials and civil servants, as well as the introduction of some formula of co-payment for healthcare services - the objective being more to dissuade excesses than to gather revenue. Not only did CiU omit to include this option in its electoral program; Mas expressly rejected it during the campaign.

If the new Catalan budget is approved - for which CiU will require the PP's votes in the regional parliament - Catalonia will be the first region to establish co-payment. The PP's possible support suggests that this will soon spread to others.

The urgency of these austerity measures - which, to judge by the electoral results, the public seems to find reasonable — rendered it unnecessary for Mas to justify them in terms of a fiscal pact with the central Spanish state. Whatever form this pact should take, Mas knows that it would never be an alternative to the decisions he has made.