Félix Bolaños has been in charge of opening a momentous day for the Government in which the coalition formed by PSOE and Sumar intends to carry out three decrees aimed, mainly, at softening the onslaught of the crisis. Although, among this battery of measures, a reform of subsidies has also been included as well as a reform of the Criminal Procedure Law. Matters on which Junts and Podemos have announced rocky reluctance, which is why, at this time, the Executive does not have the guarantees of being able to overcome the respective votes. Everything will depend on the in extremis negotiations that are being carried out between socialists and post-convergents and which have a time limit of 3:00 p.m. at which the telematic vote closes.
Aware of all this, the Minister of the Presidency, Justice – along the same lines as the second vice president, Yolanda Díaz (Sumar) – has not been slow to get into the heart of the matter, appealing to the responsibility of some and others when the time for negotiation begins to run out: “If you fail, tomorrow the electricity bill will go up and the pension will go down. 10,000 million European funds are at stake, the reductions in public transport or the increase in pensions, among others Today the citizens will check if they are there to make their lives easier or to harm them based on politicking that no one understands,” Bolaños said, revealing what the Government is risking at the first opportunity.
Junts and Podemos, for their part, remain installed in the no, although they assure that there is time to negotiate. Asked if there is room for maneuver to change her voting direction and if there are meetings planned, the post-convergent spokesperson in Congress, Miriam Nogueras, assured on RAC 1 that her party “continues talking” with the PSOE to redirect the process. From the purple formation, for their part, they limit the possibility of agreement on the withdrawal of the “cut” to unemployment benefits for those over 52 years of age. “We are looking forward to voting in favor of this decree,” they insist.
Once the castling of Junts and Podemos has been confirmed, PSOE and Sumar have opened up to introducing changes by processing the measures as draft laws if this can avoid a defeat that would undermine the reliability of the Executive. But the open negotiations are not progressing as the Government would like.
From there, the parties have been establishing their positions. The BNG is torn between abstention and support for the Executive. But his deputy, Néstor Rego, has called it “unusual” that the decrees bring together “disparate issues” that “make their evaluation difficult.” For this reason, he has demanded that they be reintroduced as a bill to “be able to present amendments and introduce corrections.”
From Podemos, Podemos deputy Martina Velarde has announced that they will vote in favor of the Justice decree. The party led by Ione Belarra had not shown explicit reluctance in this regard, so their amendments are limited to the reform of the subsidy for those over 52 years of age and for which they maintain their opposing vote, making public that the PSOE has not yet “contacted them.” “so far this day.
ERC has already announced its support for the Government “because there are improvements that we cannot miss”, but will present modifications later “when it is processed as a bill.”
EH Bildu is, like ERC, one of the Government’s allies today. He will vote in favor of the decrees despite considering that some measures can “manifestly be improved.”
When it is Junts’ turn, Carles Puigdemont’s party has decided not to take its turn to speak so as not to alter the ongoing negotiations. According to post-convergent sources, they will not intervene in the Plenary until the last point that concerns the measures to alleviate the effects of the economic crisis.
Mikel Legarda Uriarte has confirmed that the PNV will vote in favor, although he has highlighted the discrepancies with the Executive’s forms.
Vox has expressed the harshest reproaches of the day with a total rejection of the measures to be voted on. “You are the champions of the decrees, and the champions of mixing unrelated things within the decrees,” deputy De Meer Méndez outlined to the Government. “It is blackmail (…) You are negotiating to condone up to 15,000 million euros to the mafia that has kidnapped the Catalans,” she added.
The last party to intervene, being the most voted, was the PP. His deputy Pere Lluís Huguet has taken a position opposing the three decrees, although Feijóo’s team believes that their votes will have no effect given that they believe that the PSOE will manage to carry out its three crucial votes.
