The Government faces one of its toughest parliamentary defeats of the legislature. The decree that, among other things, includes the annual revaluation of pensions and aid for public transport, declined this Wednesday due to the vote against the PP and Junts, who confirmed their rejection of the text presented by the Executive with the very broad package of measures that are already in force and that will now be overturned.
The so-called omnibus decree, which renewed part of the social shield to contain the economic effects derived from the war, with measures such as a social electricity bonus or protection against evictions for vulnerable families, as well as an increase in pensions by 2.8% , has fallen with 177 votes against and 171 in favor. The decree that sought to maintain the special tax on energy companies has also fallen, this time with the rejection of PNV as well: 183 votes against, 165 in favor and one abstention.
Junts delves a little deeper into the break with the PSOE and confirms that Pedro Sánchez’s Government does not currently have a parliamentary majority. The Catalan independentists confirmed this Wednesday that they will vote against all the decrees that the Executive tries to validate in Congress, among them the one that includes the increase in pensions and aid for public transport. A movement that leaves the viability of these measures in the hands of the PP, already published in the Official State Gazette and which, if the decrees are overturned, would automatically decline.
According to the intervention of the Junts spokesperson on the platform, Míriam Nogueras, the meeting held this week in Brussels between the leadership of the PSOE, with Santos Cerdán at the head, and Carles Puigdemont and his team, ended in failure and was of no use. to rebuild the bridges blown up before the Christmas holidays, when Junts stood out by demanding a question of trust from Pedro Sánchez.
“What bothers Junts today is the trilerismo, its lies, its manipulations, its arrogance, its blackmail, its non-compliance,” Nogueras said to defend that he will vote against the three decrees that are voted on this Wednesday. “These measures have neither been voted on nor debated. These measures are not part of our electoral program. They don’t have a majority. It’s indecent. They have to stop playing tricks and the rest have to stop voting yes in exchange for nothing. If they continue to rely on this blackmail, they will continue with the blackmail,” he threatened.
Nogueras’ speech has been full of reproaches for the alleged non-compliance of the PSOE with the agreements they signed a year ago, precisely within the framework of a negotiation on three other decrees that the Government sought to approve and for which it needed the support of Junts. Then, the Executive promised to transfer immigration powers to Catalonia, a negotiation that is still stuck. “A year ago some agreements were closed that have not been substantiated,” Nogueras recalled. “We are fed up with people being deceived and we wonder how long other parties will continue to accept this blackmail,” he added in a clear reference to Esquerra Republicana, with whom they maintain a struggle in Catalonia for the hegemony of the independence movement.
With Junts’ ‘no’, the only possibility that the Government already had to carry out the decrees was the PP, which had already threatened to drop the initiative on the platform. “The PP will vote NO to this trap decree but will promote a law that protects the retirees of our country. The gift that the Government gave to the PNV in the form of a palace in Paris does not have the support of the Popular Party,” sources from the parliamentary group have transferred after learning of Junts’ position.
With that “gift”, the PP refers to a measure included in the decree called omnibus, the return to the PNV of the historic headquarters of the Basque Government in exile in Paris. It is a building that the Franco regime took from the Jeltzale group in 1951. Since 2009, it has housed the headquarters of the Cervantes Institute in the French capital.
“He has asked for our vote. When he called us were we there? Yes,” the economic spokesperson of the PP, Juan Bravo, told the Minister of Justice, Félix Bolaños. “We are not going to support this invention, we are not going to support a project of cuts and blackmail. If you have a progressive majority, submit to a question of confidence, approve budgets and if not, call elections,” he warned.
What the PP and also Junts have proposed to the Government is to undo the omnibus decree and separate the revaluation of pensions from it. “Why don’t you just bring the pensions? I would have unanimity. Of course we support it,” said Bravo. “With us, blackmail and pressure have no effect. The increase in pensions and transportation discounts are guaranteed. Make a measure with those two points and we will vote in favor because you do not have a majority,” Nogueras had advanced.
Just after the intervention of the Junts spokesperson, the Republican spokesperson, Gabriel Rufián, reproached Nogueras for his attacks, which he dismissed as “lies.” “Today a majority that already exists is materializing,” he said. “Stop lying miserably. Stop saying that you are not part of any block. Every time someone says that they are not left or right, they are right. They are very right-wing, they are so right-wing that they vote with the PP and Vox to their shame,” he criticized.
Pension increases and social shield
The omnibus decree includes the general increase in pensions of 2.8% in 2025, according to the average inflation of 2024. That is, an increase of between 500 and 600 euros on average to protect the purchasing power of nearly 11 million pensioners , between retirees (10.3 million) and passive classes (the rest).
In addition, a greater increase is expected for minimum and non-contributory pensions, of 9% for the latter, as contemplated in the 2021 reform “to narrow the gap with the poverty line.” These increases now remain up in the air, pending the Government making another decree.
Another key policy of this coalition Government to protect the purchasing capacity of the most vulnerable and to reduce inequality is the increase in the Minimum Interprofessional Wage (SMI). While the 2025 increase is being negotiated, the omnibus decree extends the 2024 increase, which represents a cumulative increase of 54% since 2018. As with pensions, this increase remains up in the air in January.
Another key measure of this new social shield is the extension during the first six months of 2025 are the discounts on public transport, both because of the respite it represents for the ‘pocket’ of millions of families and because it favors more sustainable mobility. Experts have been celebrating this policy as one of the most effective in the fight against inflation since 2021.
The extension of the electric social bonus is also a focused measure to protect the most vulnerable. Meanwhile, the omnibus decree brings together other changes in the electricity bill, with tax increases after the normalization of inflation, along with other aid for La Palma, the prohibition of evictions or for the areas affected by the October DANA. All these policies are paralyzed with the failure of the Government in Congress this Wednesday.
Source: www.eldiario.es
