Valencia's Llorca rejects Madrid's financing offer as 'nobody wants it' while reconstruction crawls at 5%

Political clash over regional funding

Spanish Finance Minister Arcadi España used a morning radio event in Valencia to press the regional president, Juanfran Pérez Llorca, to sit down and negotiate the new autonomous financing model. España argued that Llorca's refusal stems from instructions by PP national leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo, who, according to the minister, does not want any agreement with the central government to succeed.

I will not stop asking Llorca to negotiate, and not to look for subterfuges. You can negotiate bilaterally, multilaterally, it will be voted on in Congress, but I don't understand not wanting to talk.

España insisted that the proposal would boost Valencia's revenues by 3,679 million euros, far above the 1,782 million that Llorca himself had requested from Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez. He also criticized the regional PP government's tax cuts, describing them as a '1,000 million hole' and warning that the party is framing a dangerous debate: 'taxes yes or no, which is really welfare state yes or no'.

Llorca fires back

Hours later in Algemesí, after a mixed commission meeting on DANA reconstruction, Llorca responded. He called the minister's demand 'quite incongruent', noting that none of the bilateral meetings held by the government, including with communities governed by the PSOE itself, have accepted the model. Only Catalonia has done so, he claimed.

If you present a financing model for all the autonomous communities and no one accepts it, and only one has done so, I think that if you truly want to solve the problem you have to present another model.

Llorca added that the logical step is for the government to modify a proposal that 16 of 17 regions reject, and then take the discussion to the Fiscal and Financial Policy Council, the multilateral forum he insists is the proper venue.

DANA reconstruction barely moving

At the same meeting, Territorial Policy Minister Ángel Víctor Torres highlighted that Valencia 'is once again a driving province economically', citing a drop in unemployment from 152,947 in October 2024 to 138,063 in May 2026. He detailed that 1,745 million euros have been allocated for municipal infrastructure, with project briefs received for over 1,300 million and 1,100 million worth of works validated.

Llorca countered that execution is around 5% overall. 'There has been progress in briefs, but the brief is just a preliminary draft. Then the project must be drafted and tendered, so the perception is that this will be slow,' he said. Watercourse restoration works are even slower, at 3% execution. The Insurance Compensation Consortium has paid 4,500 million euros, processing 99.5% of claims.

Budget pressures and political tone

On the national budget, España compared the task to cycling's Tourmalet climb, acknowledging its difficulty. He stressed that the public accounts 'are not to save the government, but what Spanish society needs,' while admitting that the executive is surrounded by a pre-electoral climate and corruption cases. The minister asked the PP to 'stop insulting' and preserve institutional forms.

The PP has put on the table a very dangerous debate: taxes yes or no. In reality, it is welfare state yes or no.

He confirmed ongoing contacts with parliamentary partners but gave no timeline for a draft law.