The lack of agreement between the PSOE, the PNV and Junts with the rest of the partners leads to the abyss of the tax reform desired by Pedro Sánchez, necessary to put the general state budgets and the fifth installment of funds back on track Europeans. In just 48 hours, the balance of the investiture bloc supporting the Government has gone from precarious to very unstable, both on the left and the right, and is already threatening the stability of Parliament.
In addition, the lack of agreement could lead to an automatic drop in taxes on energy companies and banks on January 1, as well as other taxes agreed by the PSOE in recent weeks, such as those on private health care and tobacco vaping devices, among others. The lack of agreement from the investiture bloc favors the position of partners to the right of the PSOE (PNV and Junts) and harms those on the left (Podemos, ERC and Bildu).
The government is in a hurry to approve a bill which provides for a minimum tax of 15% on multinationals, a project which has already been delayed by several months and which has already given rise to a complaint from Brussels. The review period ended at the end of October and above all the PSOE acted in all directions to solicit support and incidentally take advantage of and include certain tax reforms requested by certain partners.
First, two weeks ago Sánchez reached an agreement with the PNV and Junts. Then, this Monday, another with Sumar which included a batch of progressive measures, but omitted the tax on energy companies. The same day, the socialists canceled the Finance Commission 44 minutes before its start, for fear that Podemos, ERC and Bildu They will reverse the tax package.
As for its partners, the PSOE and the Sumar government are incapable of dressing one saint without undressing another, and the proposals of its left are proving more and more contradictory with those of its right. This time, the socialists mainly gave priority to the hardest to break, the PNV and the Junts, even if this came at the cost of losing the temporary tax on energy companies.
In exchange, Pedro Sánchez thought he could link the left side of the inauguration bloc with other measures that could be included in the 2025 budgets, which are also essential for the legislative body. He attempted this with partial amendments to the initial bill transposing a European tax harmonization directive. In these amendments, he included tax increases for different concepts such as private health care or tobacco vaping, to please his left-wing partners and make them accept the removal of the tax on energy companies and the nuance of the tax on banks like Junts and I wanted. PNV.
Europe Press
But it was not so and the three left partners of the socialists launched into the sudoku criticism of the parliamentary agreements between the PSOE, Sumar, Junts and the PNV. So much so that, this Tuesday, Yolanda Díaz’s supporters renounced the same pact that they had broadcast to journalists 24 hours before. They also said they would keep their amendments to the law in force.
“I’m surprised. I thought politics was about reaching workable agreements. […] Between the government and the left-wing parties, there is gibberish. “What spectacle is this?”, complained this Tuesday the parliamentary spokesperson of the PNV, Aitor Esteban, visibly angry at the “mixture” with which the government concludes agreements on the left and the right.
In other words, the PSOE now has dissatisfied partners on the right (PNV and Junts) and on the left. Because of the content of the different agreements and because he sought to agree on different groups with different contents, impossible to put together.
Despite everything, in Moncloa it is hoped that this is just an incident and that, if necessary, the European transposition will also come into force on January 1, when the extension of taxes will also end. The original bill would therefore move forward. »without decorations that we put there,” says a source from the socialist leadership in reference to the amendments.
If this happened on January 1, taxes on energy companies and banks would decrease due to lack of agreement.
This is precisely what the PNV and Junts want, which the absence of agreement favors; and what Podemos, ERC and Bildu are not ready to tolerate. The left is therefore more eager than the right to provide a solution. On Tuesday evening, Ione Belarra proposed extending the taxes again for six months and thus having “more time to negotiate an agreement”. They even proposed including it in one of DANA’s aid decrees.
The government does not like this solution at the moment because it delays the solution, because Junts and PNV do not agree and because it would put the decrees on DANA in difficulty.
The Finance Committee will meet again on Thursday to analyze the amendments and try to reach a consensus, which seems unlikely. The plenary vote, scheduled for this week, was postponed until the following week and, as December approaches, the government is running out of time to respond to Brussels’ demands for tax reform.
Pedro Sánchez, for his part, has been trying for some time to negotiate so that Europe considers this reform accomplished, clinging to the decisions taken in recent years. In Moncloa, in fact, we cannot exclude that the Commission will lower the bar of its demands a little following the DANA in Valencia. For now, last week already offered a greater margin for the deficit.
