The Council of Ministers has agreed to withdraw the budgetary stability objectives from parliamentary proceedings, according to sources from the Ministry of Finance who have confirmed this to elDiario.es.
According to the Government, “the objective of this decision is to give more time to the negotiation by offering a new opportunity for dialogue” with its parliamentary partners, given the risk that the path could be overturned in Parliament in the vote on Thursday, due to lack of support. The Government “wants to exhaust all possibilities to reach an agreement that would be beneficial for all the autonomous communities and the municipalities”.
Treasury sources insist that “the Spanish Government will not accept that the PP’s irresponsibility will cause serious harm to the Autonomous Communities and local governments, which would lose almost 12 billion euros in budgetary margin if a new path is not approved.”
The government spokesperson, Pilar Alegría, has once again focused on criticism of the PP for the lack of support and has ignored the situation of the seven Junts deputies, allies of the investiture and who have already publicly confirmed their vote against. “The PP’s policy is irresponsible and erratic. Because voting against those 12 billion is not voting against this Government, it is voting against the people of this country, against them not being able to enjoy more and better health professionals or teachers,” said Alegría.
The leader of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, has replied on Telecinco that the Government “has failed to comply with a constitutional requirement which is to present the budget project in 2024” and, for the moment, there are no plans for 2025 either. “It seems that the meeting in Switzerland to prepare the path [presupuestaria] and that Budget has gone wrong,” he said ironically about the trip of the PSOE Secretary of Organization, Santos Cerdán, to Switzerland to meet with Carles Puigdemont and negotiate the support of the seven Junts deputies. “In Switzerland it has been decided that Spain will not have, at least for the moment, Budgets for the year 2025,” Feijóo said.
The leader of the opposition has criticised the fact that the Government is now demanding the support of the PP for the budgetary path with the justification that it would mean some 12,000 million more in possible extra spending for Communities and Town Halls. “They make a very surprising distribution of the 2.5% deficit of the public administrations” that Brussels allows, Feijóo said. “The Government keeps 96%, 2.4 points, and the Autonomous Communities are given 4%,” he lamented. “The increase in spending for the central Government and the greater adjustments for the Autonomous Communities, which have to manage health, education and public services. It makes no sense that of the 2.5% deficit, I insist, the Government keeps 2.4 and gives zero one to the Autonomous Communities,” he reiterated.
Source: www.eldiario.es
