• Since ECB President Christine Lagarde was asked at a press conference earlier this month about the ECB's plans for the digital euro, concerns about the arrival of this new payment method have been growing. Lagarde revealed her haste to get the European CBDC up and running and set ‘October 2025’ as a key date for completing the ‘preparation phase’ and moving on to the next one.

• There are many questions surrounding the digital euro: is it necessary, who will it really benefit, are there other objectives for its implementation than the official version, etc.?

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Yesterday, Monday, the association in defence of cash, Denaria, held a conference in the Congress of Deputies to demand the use of cash as a means of payment and, incidentally, to highlight the numerous barriers that cash is encountering in Spain. Cash transport and security companies or ATM providers are part of Denaria.

‘It's my money and I want to use it’.

The meeting, a pioneer on this subject, brought together numerous profiles affected by the cash curb, as well as experts and politicians from different areas. From associations of people with disabilities to representatives of the economic area of the different parties, as well as members of the national security field. The time has come to defend this means of payment.

The president of Denaria, Javier Rupérez, once again denounced the damage to consumer freedom caused by the decision of the government of Pedro Sánchez to limit cash payments to 1,000 euros under the excuse of the ‘fight’ against fraud and the black economy. ‘Of the 14 European Union countries where there are no limits on cash payments, Spain is among the most restrictive, which ‘makes everyday transactions more difficult and puts certain economic sectors at a disadvantage’.

The first panel discussion was made up of Pilar Villarino (executive director of the Spanish Committee of Representatives of People with Disabilities (CERMI)), Agustín Matía (manager of Down España), Miguel Padilla (secretary general of the Coordinating Committee of Farmers‘ and Livestock Farmers’ Organisations (COAG)), José Luis Fernández Santillana (president of the Spanish Confederation of Elderly People's Organisations (CEOMA)), and a spokesperson from the Confederation of Federations and Associations of Families and Women in Rural Areas (AFAMMER).

All agreed that putting obstacles in the way of cash is detrimental to and excludes, above all, people with disabilities, the elderly and those in rural areas. For example, Matía pointed out that for ‘people with cognitive disabilities, physical money is a tool to make the transaction more concrete, as opposed to the abstract nature of credit cards’.

‘The digital euro is a Big Brother’.

One of the most combative against the government's persecution of cash was José Luis Fernández Santillana (CEOMA). ‘I am tired of being suspected of being a fraudster. If there are criminals, prosecute them, but I am within my rights, to use cash. Why can't I buy something over 1,000 euros? Why do I have to have a bank account or a smart phone?’ he asked. ‘It's my money. I've earned it and I want to use it.

Mr Fernández was also wary of the digital euro, ‘the Big Brother, which is just around the corner’. He predicted that ‘they will know if I buy tobacco, the shampoo I use and they will control the number of digital euros we can have. In October there is going to be a powerful test and there is a risk of collapse’.

Miguel Padilla defended cash payments in the agricultural sector and did not mince his words when he pointed out that ‘I see a criminal reason for removing cash, which is to control them forever and not to have freedom’. In this sense, Matía criticised ‘the Treasury's obsession with control’.

Sumar, in favour of the digital euro

The second round table of the day was attended by parliamentary representatives such as Carlos Martín Urriza (Sumar), Juan Bravo Baena (PP), Guillermo Hita (PSOE) and Pedro Fernández Hernández (VOX),

All defended the use of cash, although with different arguments. The socialist generated widespread disagreement in the auditorium by assuring that the Treasury ‘does not carry out an act of persecution of citizens. It is necessary to maintain this control so that the entire amount contributes to the social state’.

Bravo defended the ‘freedom to choose how to pay’ and Fernández appealed to ‘social conscience’. Meanwhile, Martín took the opportunity to criticise banking, cryptocurrencies and defend the digital euro, which ‘wants to recover for Europe what we pay to American companies such as Visa or Mastercard in commissions’.

‘Cash is a means of defence’.

In the panel on national security, experts such as José Luis Pérez Pajuelo, director of the National Centre for the Protection of Critical Infrastructure (CNPIC), defended cash as ‘a resource that makes it possible to carry out an essential service for citizens, so even if it is not critical infrastructure, it is as if it were’. The fact that consumers ‘seek privacy does not mean that they seek it for spurious reasons. It is something that everyone has a right to,’ he added.

César Álvarez, project coordinator of the Borredá Foundation, warned that ‘cash contributes to public tranquillity and national security, and this contribution is in danger’. Álvarez added that ‘cash guarantees easy access to financial resources, and in an emergency situation, that is worth its weight in gold’.

Meanwhile, Juan Antonio de la Torre Valentín, head of the Systems and Infrastructure Unit of the Department of Homeland Security, considered that ‘having cash is always a means of defence when means of payment fail’. By way of an anecdote, and as an example of the importance of cash, he recalled that when he was on mission in Afghanistan, ‘what I carried in my backpack was water, a pistol and a lot of cash’.

The event was brought to a close by the president of the Mint, Isabel Valldecabres, who pointed out that ‘from 2023 to 2025 there had been no talk of the digital euro, and they are bringing it up because they have asked the president and because of Trump. I am not afraid of the digital euro, taking into account that our data is held by companies that are not public, such as Paypal or Bizum’. What is new with this project, however, is that the ECB would have the data. ‘What we did ask ourselves is whether it was necessary. This would be a public Bizum, which would be controlled by the ECB, when we already have a common means of payment, which is cash,’ he added.

Source: Libremercado