Last Council of Ministers of the year with approval of a decree law that will extend the social aid that expired on December 31, 2025, extension of the Budgets due to the parliamentary weakness of the Government, and premiere of the new spokesperson, Elma Saiz, whom Pedro Sánchez proposed this Monday, without even having digested the setback that the socialists took in Extremadura. The Minister of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration has also thanked the trust of these years and “specifically now”, when a feeling of the end of the cycle is taking over the PSOE. But Pedro Sánchez is not into that and aspires to finish his term convinced that his Government is “more necessary than ever” in the face of the overwhelming growth of the extreme right.
Among the arguments put forward in Moncloa for this continuity are social advances and protection measures, such as those included in the decree law. In addition to the revaluation of pensions, the Government has approved the ban on evictions for vulnerable families that has been in force since the pandemic and which expired at the end of the month. Compensation for tenants affected by the suspension of evictions will also be extended until December 31, 2026 and they may request it until January 31, 2027. What is left out is Sumar’s demand to extend the rental contracts that expire this year, some 600,000.
The social energy bonus discounts for vulnerable domestic electricity consumers will also be extended throughout next year, reaching 42.5% for vulnerable consumers and 57.5% for severely vulnerable consumers. The prohibition on cutting off water, natural gas and electricity supplies will also be extended until the end of 2026.
Likewise, tax incentives will be maintained in 2026 for individuals and companies when purchasing an electric vehicle, installing an electric charging point – such as the 15% deduction in personal income tax – or addressing energy efficiency actions in buildings.
In tax matters, “the limits for the application of the simplified regime and the special VAT regime for agriculture, livestock and fishing are extended during 2026” and “the quantitative limits that delimit in the IRPG the scope of application of the objective estimation method (known as “modules”) are extended to all of 2026 for small self-employed workers, with the exception of agricultural, livestock and forestry activities, which have their own quantitative limit by volume of income,” state government sources.
Companies benefiting from direct aid included in this decree law, which Congress will have to validate in January, will not be able to justify objective layoffs based on the increase in energy costs.
What has not occurred for now is the increase in the Interprofessional Minimum Wage to which the Government has committed and which is being negotiated internally, but “the validity of the current SMI (39.47 euros/day or 1,184 euros/month) is extended, for legal certainty, until a new amount is determined after consultation with social agents,” according to government sources.
In tax matters, aid granted for personal injuries caused by this summer’s forest fires is declared exempt from personal income tax and exemptions are approved for certain aid granted to those affected by the damage (aimed at maintaining employment and the economic reactivation of affected companies, as well as urgent aid approved by the Generalitat for the self-employed). “In 2026, it is possible to renounce the maintenance of VAT registration books through the Electronic Headquarters, as well as the possibility of extraordinary withdrawal from the monthly VAT refund registration for the year 2026,” the Government adds.
“The percentage of imputation of real estate income is maintained in order to avoid an increase in taxation for owning real estate in 2025 (compared to 2024) and the maximum amounts of the coefficients to be applied on the value of the land are updated for 2026 to determine the amount to be paid in the Tax on the Increase in Value of Urban Land,” the decree law states.
Despite the complaints of the PNV, the Government has decided to include all the measures in the same decree law, which also includes the increase in minimum pensions of between 7% and 11.4%, and in non-contributory pensions and the minimum vital income (IMV). The current quotas for the self-employed, which for the moment remain frozen, are also extended.
What has been approved in another separate decree is the new single transport pass, which will allow the use of Renfe trains – Cercanías and medium distance – and state concession buses in exchange for a flat monthly rate. It has also extended current public transport aid to 2026. “They are your taxes,” defended Óscar Puente, who anticipated that “a Government of PP and Vox, the first thing it would suppress would be this aid.”
And what was planned during the press conference was the debacle of the socialists in Extremadura and the victory of María Guardiola, whom the PSOE and the Government blame for Vox having skyrocketed. “It hurts me that participation has been the lowest in history, it has fallen more than eight points and it hurts me how the extreme right has doubled its presence in Parliament. The PP, Guardiola, decided on that call because it wanted to get rid of Vox and what it has achieved is to be more united than ever. I appeal to the responsibility of all political forces to preserve the presence in the institutions of those who want to destroy the institutions,” Saiz said.
The Government rules out, however, that these words mean that the socialists allow Guardiola to govern to maintain a cordon sanitaire for the extreme right. “Responsibility must be asked of the person responsible and, in this case, it has names and surnames: the PP of Feijóo and Guardiola. Not only is it agreeing with the extreme right, it is carrying out extreme right policies,” added the spokesperson, which largely explains the rise of these two forces, which make up 60% in Extremadura, in which “perhaps the citizens are not suffering the consequences of those governments, they are not suffering the consequences of that involution” of those policies. “The Government is coming to the rescue,” they say in Moncloa.
Source: www.eldiario.es
