FMRM President María Dolores Muñoz insists that, like the FEMP, a coordination team must be created in the region between those responsible for the CARM and the federation for better decision-making, since the municipalities will be key to recovery.
The FEMP leaders have held a meeting with the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, to agree on holding regular meetings with the entity that represents all the municipalities and provinces of Spain.
At the meeting with Pedro Sánchez, it was agreed to hold a meeting of the FEMP with the Head of the Executive every two weeks and meetings, this week, with the heads of Health and Ecological Transition to outline the de-escalation and local participation in this process. For her part, the president of the FMRM says that "in our region, as formally requested from the López Miras government, it is necessary to form a decision-making body that serves as a transmission belt between the CARM and the town councils, without taking away importance from the meetings held with the 45 mayors."
At the meeting with Pedro Sánchez, it was agreed to hold a meeting of the FEMP with the Head of the Executive every two weeks and meetings, this week, with the heads of Health and Ecological Transition to outline the de-escalation and local participation in this process. For her part, the president of the FMRM says that "in our region, as formally requested from the López Miras government, it is necessary to form a decision-making body that serves as a transmission belt between the CARM and the town councils, without taking away importance from the meetings held with the 45 mayors."
The president of the FEMP, Abel Caballero, assures that local entities will be present in the de-escalation process and in the social and economic reconstruction that must be addressed in our country after the crisis caused by the coronavirus, which is why the Federation of Municipalities of Murcia is asking that the City Councils have a more leading role since they are the ones that are developing plans and campaigns for economic and social recovery.
As the President of the Government has said, local authorities will be fundamental and decisive in the de-escalation and will have a vital importance for the effectiveness and success of this de-escalation. Reconstruction, Abel Caballero has agreed, will have to do with this first phase.
Caballero highlighted that during this time, City Councils, Provincial Councils, Island Councils and Regional Governments have been, and continue to be, “on the front line of the fight against the coronavirus”, supporting health development, population confinement, cleaning and disinfecting spaces and providing confinement alternatives for potential positive cases.
Regarding the use of local surpluses and remnants, an issue on which the president of the FMRM, María Dolores Muñoz, already explained the position of the Murcian municipalities a few days ago, the President of the FEMP says that the Federation sent the Government a document with 19 measures related to the spending ceiling, and with the importance of using the surpluses and remnants that have been generated in each territory, both in the current collaboration and in the de-escalation and in the economic and social reconstruction. Therefore, both entities, regional and national, are in favour of each City Council using its surplus, the result of its management.
For Caballero, the surpluses (3.830 billion euros in 2019) and the remnants are proof of “the restraint and rigour of each City Council. They are ours and the use of our resources must be carried out in each city, municipality, province or island, for reconstruction and social care and the common good”.
Muñoz, the highest authority in the Federation of Municipalities of the Region of Murcia, assures that “the role of the municipalities is very clear and it must be given the necessary importance so that with the support of other administrations they continue working as they have done until now to get out of the current health crisis and the economic and social crisis that awaits us.”
