After long months and tough negotiations to reach an agreement for the investiture, the Government of Pedro Sánchez faces the first big vote on its three new decrees this Wednesday. It does so with uncertainty and outside the chamber of the Congress of Deputies as is usually the case, since the plenary session will be held exceptionally in the Senate.
The reason for this change of location is due to the works that are being carried out in the Lower House, specifically due to the change of the computer system in each of the seats that had not yet been modernized. As planned since last year, computer screens that had become obsolete will be removed in favor of touch screens. The works are scheduled to be completed at the end of the month.
In addition, all landlines that were in Congress will also be removed and a simultaneous translation system will be introduced into the computer software. Since last September, in the first plenary session of the legislature, deputies can speak in the chamber in Catalan, Basque and Galician as full languages, on equal terms with Spanish.
In the past, the works in Congress had already forced a session to be held in the Senate, but this time it is more complex because there is a vote, in this case on the anti-crisis decree, such as the arrival of another 10,000 million euros of European funds , the revaluation of contributory pensions to 3.8%, free public transport for young people or the reduction of VAT for basic foods.
The president of Congress, Francina Armengol, opened the session by thanking the president of the Senate, Pedro Rollán, and the technicians of the Upper House “for making these plenary sessions possible” and has asked for “apologies in case there is any discomfort.”
