The Government will force the parliamentary apparatus to gain time and gain days in search of a sufficient majority to promote the roadmap and pave the way for the presentation of the 2025 budget project. Sources from the Ministry of Finance confirm that the Executive has asked the Government. Congressional Council remove the debate on the budgetary trajectory from the agenda of this Thursday’s plenary sessionwith the intention of later delaying its processing, although the chosen date has not been revealed. “The Council of Ministers has agreed to remove the budgetary stability objectives from the parliamentary process,” they say from the ministry headed by María Jesús Montero.
The PSOE did not hide yesterday the lack of figures to achieve the broad outlines on which it intends to support the Accounts. The spokesperson for the Socialist Executive, Esther Peña, acknowledged that without the support of the PP, the initiative was doomed to failure. Peña also revealed that the contacts initiated with Junts – necessary to advance in the presentation of the budget project – had not yielded results so far. “The objective of this decision is to give more time to the negotiation by offering a new opportunity for dialogue. The government wants to exhaust all possibilities to reach an agreement which would be beneficial for all the Autonomous Communities and the city councils,” reveal Treasury sources.
Moncloa opens the extension from today, to continue trying to redirect Puigdemont’s team to the investiture block. former president He warned yesterday that his group in Congress would only appreciate a change of position if the government modified the content of the stability path to give Catalonia greater budgetary space.
The current roadmap approved by the Council of Ministers two weeks ago sets a deficit target of 0.1% for the regions, several tenths more than what was initially set. The first vice-president, María Jesús Montero, insisted a few days ago that voting against this path would mean voting against 12 billion euros of fiscal margin for the autonomous communities and municipalities in two years. “The Spanish government does not resign itself to the fact that the irresponsibility of the PP is generating serious damage to the autonomous communities and municipalities, which would lose almost 12 billion of budget margin if a new path is not approved,” they insist from the department of Montéro.
Executive sources defend the decision, and demand the withdrawal of the procedure because “an exercise in responsibility of a government that relies on the general interest to reach a beneficial agreement for the defense of the welfare state.” They also accuse Puigdemont’s people of acting only “by electoral and partisan calculations, even if it means harming the public services of all citizens.” Moncloa will continue negotiations to be able to approve the accounts before December 31. In 2022, Montero managed to process those of 2023 in record time. Since the approval of the budget trajectory in the Council of Ministers and the validation of the Budgets in Congress, only a month and a half has passed. “The government is working to improve people’s lives and will seek an agreement that preserves resources for health, education or dependency in all territories,” insists the Treasury.
