Uncertainty over the bill which includes tax measures did not end with the turbulent night session of the Congressional Finance Committee. This Thursday, a vote must take place in plenary session and, despite having increased contacts with parliamentary partners in recent days, the Government has still not obtained a sufficient majority to move it forward.
Currently, the Ministry of Finance of Maria Jesus Montero The vote of the entire investiture bloc is already assured, with the exception of the essential votes of the four Podemos deputies. For more than two hours, Vice President Montero and Felix Bolanos They negotiated intensely this Wednesday with Ione Belarra in the zone reserved for the government in Congress to obtain its support.
But at the end of the meeting no agreement was reached, and there is none at the close of this edition either, in the absence of what could happen until 4 p.m. this Thursday, scheduled time for plenary voting. The government hoped that Belarra and his three other deputies would abstain at least to allow the approval of the text, but the purples insistently deny this possibility, considering that abstaining would be equivalent to voting for.
Podemos sources insisted last night: “If they don’t move, they will eat it. It seems that They don’t know why they play and we have everything in our favor.” They refer to the fact that it would be easy for them to justify this position, given that the party of Ione Belarra has always remained firm in its defense of this tax and, even, in its crusade to do it is permanent Just unlike others like Junts and PNV, who reject it or ERC and Bildu, who have renounced it;
This Thursday, negotiations will continue until the moment of the vote, up to the limit, as the government of Pedro Sánchez usually does.
If the four from Podemos abstained, the government would continue to need the vote of the representative of the Canarian Coalition, Cristina Validoand of Jose Luis Abalos, former socialist deputy now member of the Mixed Group. If these two vote against, there will be a tie at 173 seats, which will require a redo of the vote. If the result is repeated three times, the standard decreases.
Curiously, the vote took place on the same day that the businessman and commission agent Victor de Aldama declared before the National Court of Koldo Fieldwhich involves the former Minister of Transport and former Secretary of the PSOE Organization.
The commitment
Podemos requests – still without success – an express and clear commitment so that in the coming weeks a decree-law will be approved which extend the tax to energy companies, without this tax being decaffeinated and, in addition, guaranteeing that it has the vote of the Junts. The government refuses to accept this request.
Junts and the PNV oppose the extension of taxes on energy companies and banks, but the government has agreed with its sovereign left partners (Bildu, ERC and BNG) to approve a decree which extends the validity of this tax.
Monday evening, during one of the Finance Committee breaks, those of Carles Puigdemont They demanded that the government specify in writing that energy companies that collaborate on decarbonization will be rewarded. This was done ad hoc so the tax does not concern specific projects – notably that of Repsol in Tarragona – but Podemos does not accept it because it considers that it would exempt all energy companies.
According to the calculations of certain groups, this exemption could reach 90%that is, it would leave the tax at zero in practice. But the Government explains that if there was no such tax reduction, Junts would not validate the decree.
But the text voted on this Thursday has nothing to do with that. Not directly. Its heart is actually a bill that transposes a European directive aimed at unifying corporate taxes for multinationals across the European Union. Regarding this rule, the Government agreed with its various partners on a series of contradictory amendments which attempted to create taxes on real estate companies (socimis) and private health care, among others.
Due to lack of agreement, all these amendments were rejected, even though they are still relevant for today’s plenary session and it seems very difficult to approve them. In other words, the vast majority of tax reform that the Government intended to approve to fulfill the commitment made with Brussels and necessary for the arrival of new European funds.
What the government needs is to avoid losing the global vote on the bill with what little remains of his tax reform. PP, Vox and UPN will vote against and PSOE, Sumar, PNV, Junts, ERC, Bildu and BNG will vote for. Also José Luis Ábalos and Cristina Valido. For this to succeed, the Socialists need the vote of the four Podemos deputies, and this is where the condition of the tax on energy companies comes into play.
If not approved by January 1, the EU would sanction Spain. In addition, the government is jeopardizing its stability and options for approving general state budgets, which have proven essential this mandate. This is why Treasury has put so much effort into the negotiations these days.
Montero led the conversations with little success and with multiple criticisms from all partners, who questioned the way the vice president conducted the side conversations with the groups. Some of them even directly named her as the person responsible for the gibberish.
Monday evening, around 11 p.m. and during the meeting of the Finance Commission, the Minister of Justice and the Presidency, Felix Bolanostook the reins of all negotiations and sought its own path to redirect the situation. On Wednesday, he himself was responsible for meeting Podemos and Belarra, with whom he has always gotten along very well.
ERC and Bildu admit that they had to give up a lot of things, that the agreement with Junts leaves the tax on energy companies at nil and that the government’s proposal to commit to approving a decree is very much pending, but they put the idea of save directive and not bring down the government. Above all, they need the support of Podemos, otherwise they could be denounced for having given in to their conservative partners and renounced a left-wing demand.
Sumar, for his part, is also irritated with the PSOE because it abandoned the amendment on socimis taxation, although it is still relevant in today’s plenary session, with very little options for moving forward.
The PP will vote against because what remains of the bill is no longer just the transposition of the directive, but what remains after the changes introduced by the PSOE and its partners.
