Despite the negotiations that the Government carried out until the last moment this Tuesday, the social shield decree will most likely fall due to the refusal of Junts. The solution that Moncloa had found to combine the interests of the complicated majority that supports him was to formulate the next vote in two decrees. On the one hand, the revaluation of pensions, which has sufficient support, and, on the other, the rest of the measures. But despite the changes introduced in recent hours, the Catalan independentists say that they will vote against this second decree, which contains the moratorium to suspend evictions of vulnerable families. Moncloa still trusts in the last hours and points out: “Match by match.”
During the weekend and, above all, throughout Monday, Government negotiators multiplied conversations with their partners to try to find a political solution to last week’s vote in Congress. Pedro Sánchez carried out in the same decree, as in previous years, the revaluation of pensions to 2.7% alongside a package of various measures, grouped in the so-called social shield, which range from aid to those affected by the damage to the prohibition of cutting off supply for vulnerable consumers.
But in the compendium of measures, there was one that especially affected the right, mobilized in recent years by the supposed problem of squatting. The decree contained protection against vulnerable people who cannot pay the rent to prevent them from being evicted, a measure that was implemented in the last legislature and has been postponed through decrees all these years. Both the PP and Junts used this protection as an excuse to vote against pensions and force the Executive to reformulate its strategy.
That is why in the last few hours, the PSOE was in conversation on several sides to try to find an acceptable solution for all parts of the eclectic investiture bloc, from Podemos to Junts. One option that was on the table in the early stages was to separate the measures, but in a different way: a block with pensions and most of the social security fund and another separate decree with the anti-eviction moratorium.
A formula that did not convince Sumar, who tried until shortly before the Council of Ministers to incorporate the moratorium into the rest of the social shield. In Yolanda Díaz’s coalition they were clear that if the Government carried a separate decree with protection against evictions, the right would have a very easy time overthrowing it. “It was very important that this measure not be detached from the social shield so as not to make it easier for the right to overthrow it,” celebrated the Minister of Culture, Ernest Urtasun, after the approval of the two packages.
The Government has thus managed to save at least one of the two decrees, the one containing the revaluation of pensions, which when voted separately from the rest of the measures will have the support of Junts and waiting for the PP, which has not yet revealed what it will do when both decrees are voted in Congress. Alberto Núñez Feijóo’s party had also requested a separate vote on the measures.
What the Government has not managed to resolve at the moment is support for the social shield, mired in the everlasting dilemma of the legislature between the left and the right of the investiture bloc, the ideological tension between Podemos and Junts.
The Executive tried an intermediate route through the Basque Nationalist Party to attract Catalan independentists. The nationalists announced early on an agreement to soften protection against evictions and exclude owners of up to two homes (one for habitual residence and one for rental). According to the Basque group, the Government will be in charge of offering a housing alternative for these tenants. Although Moncloa does not know how to quantify how many people this measure will leave unprotected, Minister Urtasun assured this Tuesday that it is a “very small” part of the market.
The announcement angered Podemos, which went so far as to describe the agreement as “criminal.” “As a result of this criminal pact there will be many unprotected people,” said the general secretary of the party, Ione Belarra, who did not advance her position on the decree until seeing the letter of the decree, although she warned that what they have heard does not sound good to them.
But with this route the Government has not secured the support of Junts either, which in the voice of its spokesperson in Congress, Míriam Nogueras, described what was announced as “band-aids.” Party sources confirm to this newspaper that they will vote against the measure, meaning that, barring unexpected help from the PP, the decree will fall in Congress.
Moncloa trusts in securing support
The Government spokesperson, Elma Saiz, avoided assuming that the Government has sufficient support for the decree to go ahead. However, in Moncloa he was confident this Tuesday that he would have them after having lowered the ambition by limiting the prohibition and leaving out cases in which the owners have one or two homes. “We are trying to reach a text that attracts the greatest possible parliamentary support,” government sources said about the modifications that have been included to seduce the PNV, and also Junts, before learning of their refusal.
What they leave unanswered is whether they will convince Podemos given the criticism of the changes. “We spoke before, during and after,” they limit themselves to saying in Moncloa, where they consider, however, that the decree now has more possibilities of going ahead than last week, when it was rejected by the neo-convergents: “We have spoken with all the groups except Junts. What we considered had the most consensus has been done.”
“We have some measures with a design that did not come out, and we have approved some measures that we hope will attract the parliamentary majority. We have a proposal that we believe is convincing,” say those sources who throw the ball into the court of the groups that now show reluctance: “Those who are going to vote are not the ones who have to give the explanations.”
That goes for both Junts, if it remains in the ‘no’, and for Podemos, if its criticism becomes a negative vote, but publicly the ink is directed against the PP. “I would ask, for example, the Popular Party, what do you think is wrong? What do you think is wrong about protecting the most vulnerable, for example, to pay the electricity or water bill?” asked the spokesperson.
Source: www.eldiario.es
