Ciudadanos continues to fight against the “unsustainable” pension reform that the Government is going to take to Congress this week and today it has done so with the arguments provided by the position of the Independent Authority for Fiscal Responsibility (Airef), which has raised doubts about the high deficit that the new distribution may entail for public coffers.
After the meeting of the permanent committee, the political spokesperson for the liberal formation, Patricia Guasp, has called for the resignation of the minister responsible for the reform, José Luis Escrivá, as a consequence of the “amendment to the totality” that Airef has presented, to Ciudadanos trial, upon learning the details of the initiative, which has the endorsement of the European Commission.
For Ciudadanos, it is a “robbery” and an “intergenerational pyramid scheme” that puts the sustainability of the system at risk and threatens the future retirement of those who are younger today, for which reason the Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, he should have dismissed his Minister of Inclusion, Social Security and Migrations, taking advantage of the remodeling of his Executive.
In any case, this small government crisis, limited to the Health and Industry portfolios due to the candidacies of Carolina Darias, for mayor of Las Palmas, and Reyes Maroto, for Madrid, in the upcoming elections in May , should have served the president as an “opportunity” to also dismiss, as Guasp has pointed out, the ministers of Podemos, Ione Belarra and Irene Montero, for which he has criticized that the changes made constitute a mere “smoke screen”.
The Ciudadanos spokesperson, on the other hand, has reiterated in this press conference that her formation is the one that “best defends families” and has underlined one of the star points of her framework program for the municipal and regional elections of 28 -M, which consists of a 100% reduction in personal income tax for expenses on extracurricular activities, dining room or transportation of students, both from public and subsidized schools.
Likewise, Guasp has referred to the “children’s scholarship” with which Ciudadanos wants to subsidize 100% of the cost of daycare for children of preschool age, which, in any case, will be subject to income thresholds, so that the Wealthier families cannot benefit from the measure, as has happened with energy bonds.
The spokeswoman has been more uncomfortable when asked about the interview published today by the newspaper Abc with Fran Hervías, who was Albert Rivera’s right-hand man and was later recruited by the PP, under the direction of Pablo Casado and Teodoro García Egea, to direct from Genoa an operation to attract positions and militants of Ciudadanos: “I am not here to comment on the opinions of others”, Guasp has limited himself to pointing out.
The appearance of the book Ciudadanos, La historia never contada, in which Rivera’s plumber settles scores with Inés Arrimadas and other party leaders after the electoral debacle of its first president, may also have negative consequences for the current leadership, since Hervías He accuses Guasp of having “rebounded” from the PP and the current secretary general, MEP Adrián Vázquez, of being more concerned about his own interest and political future than about the party.
Thus, the sharpest invective of Guasp has been taken precisely by the leader of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, for his “unfortunate criticism” of the Ibero-American Summit in Santo Domingo, in which the President of the Government has participated, but also , as the spokesperson for Ciudadanos, the head of state, Felipe VI, has recalled, for which the opposition leader has shown, in his opinion, “lack of institutional competence” by accusing Sánchez of “paying homage to autocrats”.
