The procedure for preparing the Generalitat Budgets for 2024 is not generating peaks of apparent tension between PP and Vox. Not even in the presentation of amendments to the Accompaniment Law that is presented along with the accounts have any cracks been evident in the new executive chaired by Carlos Mazón. Very far from the usual tug-of-war that the Botànic had every time the approval of the accounts approached.
Yesterday, the president of the Generalitat led the vote with which the two parliamentary groups that support the Consell overturned the entire amendments presented by PSPV and Compromís. He was not present at it, for one more session, his predecessor in office, Ximo Puig. The accounts continue to be processed and will be approved without difficulties before the end of the year.
The Minister of Finance, Ruth Merino, was blunt: “The change is being carried out and the Council of President Mazón is not only fixing the excesses that we found when we arrived in all the Departments, but is already projecting, with actions, this community towards the position of leadership that he deserves. Vox deputy Teresa Ramírez insisted on the idea that PP and Vox comply and stated: “We are unstoppable.”
The mechanism of both parties works institutionally, although it is true that some of the minority partner’s outbursts make the PP blush. Yesterday was no exception; Ramírez complained to the Hemicycle tribune about the difficulties of Spaniards in finding housing compared to the alleged facilities enjoyed by immigrants. A comment that his parliamentary group applauded in the face of the silence of the PP and the censorship of the opposition.
However, in numbers, the parties that govern in coalition did agree in defending “the assumptions of truth and rigor” to confront the overflowing debt and the inheritance received.
A very different reading from that made by the economic spokespersons of the PSPV, Arcadi España, and Aitana Mas (Compromís). The former Minister of Finance regretted that “the Valencian Community is going to suffer the first budget cuts in eight years” and pointed out that “the only new idea they include is to lower taxes on high incomes.” For Spain, “the biggest losers from Mazón’s accounts are young people” due to cuts in housing policies by 13 million and investments in public transport by 70 million euros.
But, for his part, he denounced the inconsistency of the new Consell, which has chosen to make a generous provision for the items that it previously considered fictitious. “The president was right, they are the toughest budgets in the last 8 years.” But he criticized the lack of definition, the cuts of a “dark and directionless” Government. He did not hesitate to describe the accounts as a “budgetary fantasy.”
