The Government is expected to approve this Tuesday the pension increase that failed in Congress last week. The Executive is negotiating against the clock with the investiture partners to try to save the entire social shield, which also includes the energy bonus, aid for the dana, tax credits and the extension of the ban on evictions, which was Junts’ justification for voting against. The conversations between various parties have been limited to how to move forward with this package given that PP and Junts demanded that the pension increase be in an individual decree, without the rest of the measures, while the left presses so that none are left out. Modifications to the ban on evictions are also being addressed with the PNV and this Tuesday morning they announced an agreement to exclude owners with only one rental home.
“Pensions are going to be revalued yes or yes, with or without the PP, as we have done during these seven years when I have been at the head of the Government of Spain. That is my commitment and we are going to fulfill that commitment,” said Pedro Sánchez at a rally in Teruel this Sunday. With those words, the president pointed out that the socialists would not express the fear that the pension increase will not be carried out in the month of February to hold the PP responsible during the Aragonese electoral campaign. He also sent the message that he would do it in a single decree if necessary in order to save that promise. Last year, PP and Junts voted in favor of a text practically the same as the one they rejected a few weeks before.
Beyond reading between the lines, government sources recognize that it is most likely that the pension increase will be approved this Tuesday. At the end of Monday, what is on the table of the Council of Ministers is a decree with the social shield, except for the moratorium on evictions, which generates suspicions in the PNV and Junts. That part, which is fundamental for left-wing partners, would be regulated in another decree.
Two decrees: one with all the measures and another for evictions
Moncloa’s intention is to give them the green light this Tuesday, although it could be delayed for another week. The Government has time until the Council of Ministers next Tuesday (February 10) to approve the revaluation of pensions because Social Security does not give the payment order until the middle of the month. In essence, they could also make a second payment with the difference, but the Government does not want to consider that scenario, according to government sources.
The Government intends to approve the pension increase again this Tuesday. “We are working to have it go tomorrow. Is it possible to wear something that has a fit that includes everything? With a 70% probability, yes, except for the evictions part,” these sources pointed out this Monday afternoon, who also took precautions against the possibility that at the last minute everything would be delayed until next week. “Still to be decided,” acknowledged one of the Government people involved in the negotiation being piloted by Minister Félix Bolaños. Hours later the probability increased and it was assumed that the social shield would be torn apart due to the complication surrounding the prohibition of evictions.
“Last week’s decree is overturned mainly because Junts says that it does not vote on evictions,” those sources recall: “Junts and Podemos are not going to agree in four days.” The Government is looking for formulas to save all the social shield measures through the decree and also fit the ban on evictions into the demands of right-wing partners. One of the possibilities under study is to reform the Urban Leasing Law.
Left-wing partners fear that the PSOE will fall into the temptation of abandoning the anti-eviction moratorium in response to Junts’ requests. This is what the second vice president of the Government, Yolanda Díaz, conveyed last week, when she publicly asked to return the decree intact. This Monday, Sumar conveyed a similar idea, although the coalition recognizes that they could open themselves to some alternative formula if that serves to dialogue, such as the approval of two separate decrees. Of course, for the Government’s minority partner, this scenario could only be valid if support with Junts and also with the PNV is guaranteed.
“Our line is that all the measures have to go, the important thing is not so much how but rather that they all have to go. What we are not going to allow is for the eviction measure to be dropped,” said this Monday the Minister of Culture and spokesperson for Movimiento Sumar, Ernest Urtasun.
All left-wing forces defend the Government’s protection against evictions. This is a measure that Unidas Podemos pushed for during the last legislature and that has been extended each year successively. Social movements estimate that it covers up to 70,000 people.
That is why some partners publicly defended that protection this Monday. “We hope to be able to reach an agreement, it won’t be for us,” said Esquerra Republicana spokesman Gabriel Rufián. The deputy acknowledged that the Government contacted them for the first time on Sunday night. “I think it is a bad excuse to vote against a decree that contains an immense majority of good things because you don’t like something,” Rufián reproached Junts.
Other forces like Podemos are not as jealous of the model that the Government can use to approve the measure, as long as it is effective. “The Government can approve a new anti-eviction decree tomorrow and do it month by month as many times as is pertinent and necessary,” the party’s Secretary of Organization, Pablo Fernández, proposed. Another alternative for Podemos is for the Government to take charge of paying the rent of all those families who are in a situation of non-payment due to their social vulnerability.
The struggle of the right-wing partners
The problem that the Government faces is the recurring struggle between the block of partners that supports it: on one side the left-wing forces and on the other side the more conservative parties, especially Junts but also the Basque Nationalist Party, which already complained during the debate last week about the way in which the Executive had negotiated with them and about the lack of coverage that, in their opinion, this measure leaves the owners.
A reminder that the group’s spokesperson in Congress, Maribel Vaquero, stressed this Monday. “If the Government wants to approve a new social shield, it must incorporate guarantees for small landowners and thus avoid double vulnerabilities,” he said. Like Junts, Basque nationalists believe that the Government leaves small landowners without protection. “They cannot be equated with vulture funds or with large holders. Of course we must help people in vulnerable situations, but the Government must do it. That is why we ask that they be exempted from this measure,” Vaquero insisted.
The moratorium, however, does not affect small landlords, the typical case of the pensioner with two homes, in the event of a squat. In order for the eviction to be suspended in this case, the landlord must have more than ten homes in his name or be a legal entity, that is, a company that manages apartments or an investment fund.
Source: www.eldiario.es
