Five autonomous regions in Spain have so far submitted requests to the Central Government for bailouts, despite the fact that the ‘liquidity fund’ for this purpose has not actually been even set up yet.
The Regional Liquidity Fund (FLA) is currently in the process of being set up with funds of €18 billion to be provided by the Treasury, the State Lottery company and commercial banks, so we could have Spain being bailed out to bail out the banks in order to bail out the regions.
If the regions were bailed out directly, surely there would be more chance of all of the money reaching its destination.
So far, Andalucia has said it will need €5 billion, Cataluña has requested just over €5 billion, Valencia €4.5 billion, Murcia €300 million and now Castilla-La Mancha wants €800 million. That’s €15.6 billion of the €18 billion gone already and only three regions, Madrid, Galicia and La Rioja, have stated categorically that they will not be applying for FLA funds.