The government of Pedro Sanchez has decided to postpone the debate and vote on the spending ceiling which was going to happen this Thursday in Congress after having failed to obtain, so far, the support of the Junts, and to avoid what would be a second rejection of this initiative by the Lower House.
The decision was approved this Tuesday in the Council of Ministers before the lack of sufficient parliamentary support to achieve the fiscal framework that should support the budget project, as reported by Cadena Ser and sources from the Ministry of Finance confirmed to ABC.
The approval of the spending ceiling is a necessary condition for the Government to present its new budgets. Carles Puigdemont’s party already thwarted the Executive’s first attempt to approve it last July. Sources from the Presidency of Congress point out that the request has not yet arrived in the Housebut once approved by the Council of Ministers, it will arrive in the next few hours.
The Government wants to make the most of its options to attract the Junts in order to be able to face with guarantees the parliamentary treatment of a project that, to date, does not have the necessary parliamentary support for its approval. In recent days, the Executive has tried to convince the PNV to try to convince Junts of the advantages of supporting the government at this critical moment of the legislature, according to sources close to the Executive.
The Government justifies this decision by the need to give more room for negotiation to reach an agreement on a path “beneficial for all autonomous communities and municipalities”, even if this does not open the door to a renegotiation of the figures reflected therein.
The Treasury has once again criticised the PP and recalled that the rejection of the objectives set by the Government would leave autonomous and municipal governments without 12 billion euros of spending margin for the next two years, under the argument of a controversial interpretation of the budgetary rules which maintains that, if it is not approved, the last path sent to Brussels would come into force. It should not be forgotten that in about three weeks the government will send Brussels a new path in which it will be able to reconfigure at will the last objectives sent to the Commission.
This new parliamentary setback comes in a unprecedented situation of weakness of the Government in Congress. Last week, Junts withdrew its support for the Executive at the last minute and its seven deputies voted against considering a Sumar bill aimed at regulating vacation rentals, despite Sánchez’s presence in the chamber.
(news in expansion)
