The Congress of Deputies will once again experience an agonizing vote this Thursday. The government’s tax reform arrives in the Lower House with last minute negotiations and with everything depending on a few votes and with Podemos threatening to overthrow him. After reaching a last minute agreement this Tuesday with ERC, EH Bildu and the BNG, the PSOE is concentrating all its efforts to convince Podemos to support the tax package which will be used to guide the negotiation of budgets.
However, as Podemos sources pointed out to laSexta, there is still no agreement. Their four votes are decisive, even if abstention would be valid and that is what the PSOE is asking for. Something that completely excludes training and your vote will be a “yes” or a “no”. Its secretary general, Ione Belarra, declared this morning in an interview with TVE that “there is still no agreement“, while confirming that they continue to negotiate: “We always have our phones open. I am very worried because it seems that the government is trying to hide behind the Junts to oppose a tax on energy companies which is essential at the moment.
Likewise, he indicated that if the government commits to collecting the tax on energy companies, Podemos will vote “yes”. “But we are not going to support a package without one of the central elements of tax reform. This tax was obtained with Podemos”, he defended. At this time, Belarra assures that with what is on the table, they cannot support this package. Even party sources indicated that they proposed them “things that have nothing to do with“with the tax on energy companies and which they do not accept at the moment.
From the PSOE, the spokesperson in Congress, Patxi López, assured that they negotiated until “the last minute”. Meanwhile, parliamentary partners such as BNG and Bildu emphasize in the corridors of Congress that “I hope it comes out” they pass on the package and insist that they are aware that with “the tax that the government offers them, we collect little, but that is how tax works”.
This threat persists as the European Union’s multinational tax law, in which part of the budget package announced by the government has been addedreached its final votes in Congress this Thursday. After passing its process in the Finance Committee, which had to be extended by more than seven hours to obtain support, the law will end up in plenary with still the uncertainty of knowing if it will finally be adopted, given the fragility of support . that the government has.
A chaotic vote
For now, the text Does not include bank and energy taxes demanded by Sumar, Podemos, ERC, Bildu and BNG. To have the text approved in committee, the PSOE had no other choice than to promise ERC, BNG and EH Bildu to try to approve the bank tax in plenary session on Thursday via a transactional amendment from the PSOE and Junts who was rejected in the commission; as well as the extension of the tax to energy companies by decree for one year, despite the fact that he had previously agreed with Junts to let it die on December 31.
Indeed, the Ministry of Finance issued a statement after the commission’s vote saying that, in addition to the promised decree, the agreement with Junts was maintained not to tax energy companies that invest in decarbonization, which are practically all companies in the sector.
Although this may seem contradictory, the socialist spokesperson in Congress, Patxi López, declared which is “very compatible“that there could be a tax on energy companies, except for those that also use their profits to invest in decarbonization. For his part, the spokesperson for the ERC, Gabriel Rufián, urged the government to announce now the agreed decree-law on the energy tax and gave until Thursday to avoid having “a problem” in plenary session.
Furthermore, Bildu spokesperson Oskar Matute stressed that he has an approved agreement with the government and therefore hopes that it will be respected and that therefore will vote in favor of the project during Thursday’s plenary session. If finally the Government has the support of all its investiture partners; It remains to be seen what Podemos will do, which for the moment remains in the “no” position while awaiting a real proposal to extend the tax on energy companies.
The vote against the “purple” formation would result in a tie to 175 votes among the investiture blocon the one hand, and PP, Vox, UPN and Podemos, on the other. If this happened up to three times, the law would fall, as provided in Congressional Rule 88.1.
