Gibberish spectacle, impractical, frivolous, incomprehensible. These are some of the expressions with which the parliamentary spokesperson of the PNV, Aitor Esteban, described on Tuesday the ambitious tax reform with which the coalition government intended – against the clock – to save the next tranche of European funds and which, it seems, is clear. , will not see the light of day due to the shock of the partners.
The day before, Monday, the government had postponed the Finance Commission (where the reform was being voted on) 45 minutes before the start to avoid another parliamentary defeat. The risk was that Podemos, ERC and Bildu would cancel the tax package, which is essential to approve before the end of the year.
“It’s very complicated, impossible, to move forward,” summed up Esteban. “We need all of us, because everyone must give in” he insisted, visibly angry at EH Bildu’s demands to relaunch negotiations.
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The problem has another derivative, it is the lack of balance in the investiture bloc. The positions of the left, at least on these types of questions, are irreconcilable with those of the rest of the partners, and each minimal vote becomes a mess for the government coalition. If they do not agree with tax reformit will be impossible to include them in the general state budgets.
Above all because beyond ideological questions, it is becoming more and more difficult for the PSOE to unite the warring partners and for everyone to be able to sell it to their own as a victory. At the end of each negotiation, the most difficult thing is always to make Bildu and PNV equally happy; in ERC with Junts; and we can with Sumar.
Coming back to tax reform, the Gordian knot of all this is the tax on energy companies. ERC, Bildu and Podemos support it without hesitation. The PNV and Junts are radically opposed to it.
Barely two weeks ago, the PSOE presented a battery of amendments led by Junts and the PNV. Among them was the extension of the bank taxbut not to energy companies, as the other partners claim. The agreement did not please the rest of the Socialists’ left-wing parliamentary partners at all.
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Finally, the PSOE managed to get Sumar to give up on this issue on Monday, but failed to convince the rest of the left forces. It was Sumar who presented the agreement. The next day, Tuesday, Yolanda Díaz’s party changed its mind and declared that not only was it not renouncing the tax on electricity companies, but it was keeping its amendments in force.
Socialist sources then explained that what they had with Sumar This is not a closed agreementwhile it had not yet been formally presented to ERC and Bildu. In any case, what they agreed on were only “principles”, not drafted amendments, as they did with Junts and PNV.
In this scenario, it is very likely that the disagreement between the partners will imply not only the end of the tax reform desired by the government, but also that the minimum tax of 15% on multinationals will not be implemented, as the asks Europe. Despite everything, Moncloa believes that this is only a temporary incident.
In these conditions, the government has no other choice but to continue negotiating left and right on the basis of the “common minimum”, as Aitor Esteban calls the meeting points between all, and to swallow certain defeats in exchange for winning other battles. One of them could be, to add another problem to the list, the much announced reduction in working hours, rejected by employers and Junts.
