The government of María Guardiola only has to negotiate and obtain the favorable votes of the Vox parliamentary group to implement the general budget law of Extremadura, once the PSOE and Unidas por Extremadura have presented this Friday, November 27 l entirety of their amendments for their return to the Junta de Extremadura.
To Maria Guardiola An abstention from Vox would not be enoughyour vote must be favorable to obtain more yes than no, the PSOE with 28 deputies and Unidas por Extremadura with 4 would add more votes against than the votes of the 28 deputies for the Popular Party, so the 5 votes for Vox will be the key to moving forward the accounts for 2025.
The spokesperson for the Junta de Extremadura herself admitted yesterday, November 26, that there had not yet been a new approach with Vox, although she affirmed that for the moment it was the only party that confirmed its presentation, noted that María Guardiola’s executive is awaiting a call from Santiago Abascal’s team to resume negotiations.
Amendment to the entire Unidas por Extremadura
The first group to have formalized the presentation of the amendment in its entirety was Unidas por Extremadura, the spokesperson of the group, Irene de Miguel, assured that her group had prepared this amendment confirming that “we are facing a suicidal and unsupportive group. budget, unfair, based on lies and which does not meet the needs of our country. “He maintains – he said – the sheet of suicidal path that PP and Vox had already approved the previous year, and that fundamentally relies on solving all the problems through tax cuts.”
De Miguel also added that the 2025 budget “is not the one that increases the most and it is not historic”, since these are accounts that have not incorporated this year’s CPI increase. “Inflation rose to 2.2 percent and this budget only increases by 1.40 percent, because the budget for this year 2024, with the final appropriations, remained at 8.194 million euros. ” “This is the lowest percentage growth in the last decade, so don’t tell us any stories,” he insisted.
The spokesperson for the formation explained that The “average” increase in the Popular Party’s budgetary project is achieved through transfers from the State and the European Union and the increase in debt.and not by a drop in its own income. “AIREF expects that the revenue reduction adopted in previous years will have its effects this year.” “That is to say,” he assured, “that the tax reduction for the rich, speculators, rentiers and heirs, agreed by PP and Vox, will already be included in these accounts” .
United for Extremadura, in its full amendment, denounces that the 2025 budget plunges into a “an immense injustice”which places the fiscal pressure on working families, “while the most privileged reduce their contribution to the common piggy bank”.
By elements, Irene de Miguel drew attention to what is recorded in health investmentsince he denounced that the Ministry of Health and Social Services is second to last in percentage growth. “Neither primary care nor specialty care are the fastest growing programs, ranking 49th and 46th out of a total of 80 budget programs,” he said.
In accommodationUnidas por Extremadura assured that the planned investment is “laughable” because, according to De Miguel, “it will not allow the construction of more than 150 housing units throughout Extremadura”, but the spokesperson also said that some housing undergo reductions, such as 261A of Promotion and Assistance with access to housing, which undergoes a reduction of 8.41 percent. “The PP’s only housing policies are tax cuts for owners, renters and speculators.” “Not the type to guarantee access to housing,” he insisted.
The leader of Unidas por Extremadura denounced cuts also in other budgetary areas, such as social inclusion, whose reduction amounts to 6.36 percent. He also denounced “Pyrrhic” increases, such as in the area of employment, where the 242A program for the promotion and quality of employment increases by only 1.27 percent, and other which, although being one of the flagship measures, “do not even increase one euro”. , just like the financing of preschool education centers managed by municipalities, “despite the fact that they increase the daycare check for children aged 1 to 2”.
On the other hand, Irene de Miguel regretted that Spending on senior civil servants and trusted staff rises 4.5 percent. “Far from the austerity and greed of other programs, the trust staff exceeds the overall budget growth percentage,” he said.
For all these reasons, Unidas por Extremadura requests, with its amendment in its entirety, the return of the budgetary project “because our model is a model diametrically opposed to that proposed by the PP, whether with Vox or alone.”
Amendment to the entire PSOE
The general secretary of the PSOE of Extremadura, Miguel Ángel Gallardo, announced that this party will present an amendment to the entire general budget of the Junta of Extremadura for 2025. “We do this with a deep feeling of responsibility towards our landtowards the families of Extremadura and towards the future that we want to build together”, declared the leader of the Socialists of Extremadura. “These budgets are a serious political, economic and social error”, he declared.
For Gallardo, the new community accounts are not the solution Extremadura needs. “It’s a lost opportunity,” declared the leader of the socialists for whom the PGEX are insufficientare poorly planned and deeply disconnected from the reality experienced in Extremadura.
Beyond the numbers and headlines that the PP government tried to sell, Gallardo said, we see that empty promisesimprovised solutions and, most worryingly, an abandonment of the needs of our people. “They are unstable, unrealistic and unfair.”
The leader of the PSOE of Extremadura has made it clear that the intention of this party, in presenting this amendment, is to be proactive, we are here to defend a alternative which places Extremadura where it deserves to be, which is committed to employment, education, health, rural areas, housing and which guarantees a development model based on justice social, sustainability and equal opportunities.
Last week, Ms. Guardiola considered these budgets historic, recalled the Secretary General of the Socialists, who stressed that they are, but for reasons very different from those defended by the PP. They are historic, he said, because they represent the lowest budget growth in eight yearsbarely 2.2%, three times less than the national measure and five times less than the last budget approved by the socialist government. “This is a time when Extremadura needs investment, vision and ambition, this government has opted for restraint and improvisation,” he stressed.
“They are historic because the lack of ambition is not the only problem, these budgets are built on unsustainable foundations. According to AIRef, the projected revenues are unrealistic, with a deficit of 1 percent of GDP, ten times above the stability budget limit of 0.1 percent,” Gallardo said, meaning that instead of working with responsible and realistic figures, “we are presented with a mirage, promises that we know about. that they will not be held.” will comply. »
On the other hand, with regard to the budget executionthe figures are of no use if they do not become realities, declared the socialist general secretary, to recall that in 2024, the level of budgetary execution of this government was one of the worst in recent history of the region, “barely 25 percent in terms of investments, which means that many of the promises made a year ago have remained unresolved and our country’s problems have not found a solution.
“It is the bad government of Ms. Guardiola: big announcements and little action, much ado about nothing, which is preventing Extremadura from moving forward,” Gallardo said.
Miguel Ángel Gallardo added that the new accounts prioritize ideological interests and this will have a considerable impact on key areas such as employment, “employment policies are not only not developing, but are also losing weight within overall social policies.
In this sense, the PSOE proposes to strengthen the active employment policieswith an increase in the budget for SEXPE which allows the development of training programs for young people, the long-term unemployed and women, especially in rural areas, as well as betting on incentives for small and medium-sized businesses that create jobs stable in emerging countries in sectors such as the green economy or digitalization.
For socialists, the accommodation This is another of the region’s major problems for which budgets do not provide a solution. In this sense, the PSOE considers that there is not enough funding to build protected housing and proposes a plan of 80,000 housing units for young people, with priority for rural areas and the construction of protected, affordable housing and durable.
The rural world is another of the major issues abandoned in these budgets, the policies of agriculture and rural development They are among those experiencing the least growth and their execution in 2024 has been embarrassing, said Gallardo, who proposed guaranteeing the irrigation of Tierra de Barros, a comprehensive rural development plan and increasing industrial incentives for companies of 100 million green euros. economy and ecological transition.
On the other hand, they emphasize the education and healthtwo major pillars of the welfare state, which are also not prioritized in the new accounts. There is no real effort to guarantee schooling from 0 to 3 years in rural areas and in health, the budget item is not even used for the new ambulance contract, the socialists criticized. In the area of health, he recalled that these accounts must include the second phase of the Cáceres hospital and the construction of the hospital module of the Don Benito-Villanueva hospital.
Thus, the PSOE offers school canteens and free classrooms in the morning, schooling from 0 to 3 years in rural areas and increased investments in health with a specific plan for hiring staff and improving infrastructure.
Regarding the fiscal policyThe PSOE emphasizes that Guardiola’s fiscal policy consists of “a banquet for the few and a distribution of leftovers for the majority”, a reduction in public revenues that compromises the ability to invest in essential services.
On this subject, the socialists propose to recover the wealth tax; recover the tax from large landowners; a model in which higher incomes contribute more while working families see their tax burden reduced and a budgetary commitment that ensures that additional revenues from tax reforms are allocated exclusively to health, education and employment policies .
“We cannot ignore the context in which these budgets were negotiated. PP and VOX have dedicated themselves to reissue the government pactthe one with which Guardiola demonstrated that his principles are like those of Groucho Marx. A year of bad government in which Ms. Guardiola showed that she was very comfortable with the far right,” Gallardo said.
