The happiness and support that Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez solicited from the other groups represented in Congress on Wednesday to support the extension of the decree containing anti-crisis measures to alleviate the effects of the war in Ukraine will not be justified of Parliament can be found. It is also not clear between which of its usual partners and in particular ERC. PP, Ciudadanos and Vox are already expecting their rejection because they believe that these measures and approved tax cuts “didn’t work” or “were insufficient”. United We Can, EH Bildu, PDeCAT, Más País and PNV show willingness to negotiate.
“Let’s see if we are luckier and those who say they love Spain show it by loving the Spaniards and approving measures that are good for the Spaniards,” said the President and Secretary General of the PSOE at the session of Congress on Wednesday. with his political groups after confirming that if the validity of this anti-crisis decree expires on June 30th, he will request its extension for a further three months until the end of September. The government hopes that this new decree will succeed, but recalls that the current decree was approved on April 28 by 176 votes in favour, 172 against and 1 abstention with the minimum. The utmost support of the five Bildu MPs then saved the situation against opposition from the PP and ERC. The panorama is not very clear yet.
The Executive has 154 seats starting with the PSOE and United We Can add. And he needs more yes votes than no votes for the decree to move forward. PP, Vox, Ciudadanos, Foro Asturias and the two defectors from Navarra Suma also reach 154.
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United We Can was one of the first formations to choose to apply for the extension of these measures, which include tax benefits for the most vulnerable families, porters and a direct subsidy of 20 cents per liter of gasoline in use, among other things until the end of December general. The coalition partner understands that more aid would be needed to promote the use of public transport with monthly bonuses of 10 euros better than one’s own car; or introduce progressive fuel discounts. The Ministry of Social Rights is calling for the so-called Social Shield to be extended to 2022, non-contributory pensions to be aligned with the CPI and the social electricity bonus to be expanded. The sector of the government led by Vice President Yolanda Díaz is still negotiating various aspects of this norm with the socialist part.
The unknown of CKD
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CKD is again an unknown. In the April 28 debate on the decree, it finally voted against, not without internal debates, admitting to some of its members that this deactivation may have been a mistake. Relations with the executive were strained at the time due to the Pegasus spying scandal against the Basque and Catalan pro-independence leaders. ERC has tightened the rope of negotiations and all indications are that it will now do more of the same. Official sources of the Republican formation indicate that a decision has not yet been made. The same is stated by the PNV faction, who then voted yes, and by JuntsxCAT, who voted no. Most of these parties, like the PDeCAT, the Cantabrian Regionalist Party, Más País and Compromís, would like the executive to agree to negotiate some improvements to the decree in order to be able to cast their votes without so many reservations, but they seem to be in favor of the yes to decide. According to various parliamentary sources, these negotiations have not yet started.
EH Bildu says he is willing to extend these “necessary but insufficient” measures even until December, “as economic forecasts and inflation developments do not seem to envisage a better scenario than the current one”. The Abertzale formation is calling for more action on salary increases, immediate repricing of pensions on the CPI, banning layoffs due to the direct cause of the economic situation similar to that in the pandemic, or tax surcharges on large fortunes, electric companies and banks.
In More Country, they accept that these improvements to “manage the rise in the cost of living are welcome”, but they point out that some, like the fuel tax cut, have proved ineffective and they lack more public transport publicity. She understands, of course, that the extension of the decree “could be an unbeatable opportunity to remedy these shortcomings”.
PP, Cs and Vox were in the no then and are now “in the same position,” noted Juan Bravo, Alberto Núñez Feijóo’s team’s popular deputy economic secretary, this Thursday. Edmundo Bal, national spokesman for the Cs, thus expressed the position that the hard core of the party had taken on Sánchez’s appeal the day before: “We have already criticized this decree because it is ineffective and insufficient and because it encourages consumption subsidized. These three months have proved us right, inflation has been rising steadily and fuel prices have not been contained.” Bravo abounded: “The measures are not working and it is the government that needs to come out of their no to not even approve our proposals read or listen.” The PP even points out that socialists like Jordi Sevilla have praised the alternative economic plan given by Feijóo Sánchez with some tax cuts.
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