Interviews
The Government of the PSOE and United Podemos have used the weekend to study and negotiate the 3,793 partial amendments presented to the 2021 Budgets.
Both partners intend to channel their differences on the proposal to prohibit evictions until 2023 defended by United Podemos through an amendment agreed with ERC and EH Bildu.
Coalition partners have talked about this controversy with the desire to accept changes in the amendment to move forward. The Executive does not renounce more support, but concludes that it can save the accounts by the minimum. It already has 161 votes.
The President of the Government himself, Pedro Sánchez, did want to clarify this Sunday, in a special appearance in La Moncloa to advance plans on vaccination against the coronavirus, his “commitment” to avoid evictions in the face of crises and traumas that the pandemic is causing :
“The Government guarantees that there will be no evictions and they are already prohibited until January 31 of next year, regardless of whether we can continue to extend measures in the coming months.”
The head of the Executive took advantage of another issue on the subject, specifically on the accusations of “disloyalty” between the members of the United We Can Government, to try to calm the spirits somewhat, which led to open reproaches among ministers such as the Minister of Defense, Margarita Robles, or that of Economy, Nadia Calviño, and the Secretary of State for Agenda 2030, Ione Belarra.Sánchez came out in defense of the two sides in dispute:
“All the ministers are the ministers of the Government, not of one or the other party. All the ministers have my total trust and my total empathy. In my opinion, the unity of the left is good news for the country.
We are responding to this unprecedented crisis, with successes and errors, in a reasonable way ”. Already in that position, the president ruled out a government crisis or readjustments. If there are, no one expects them in the short term. And certainly never before the approval of the accounts.
The leader of the PSOE thus emphasized that the central objective of his Government is to carry out the Budgets almost as it is, “because we need them”, in three fundamental aspects: to manage the crisis with accounts other than those extended since 2018; to give some political stability to the country after many years of elections and to promote a different agenda of transformations.
And in this context, he argued that all the votes of the congressional deputies are profitable and “democratic” and particularly those of the 13 forces and the 198 seats that allowed the first procedure to be passed: the rejection of the amendments to the entire opposition.
Sánchez’s words about possible extensions of the suspension of evictions beyond the end of 2021 connect with the version also provided from the Podemos management on this controversial issue, which that formation tried to introduce in an amendment agreed with ERC and EH Bildu without the approval of the PSOE.
“This weekend we have studied the more than 3,000 partial amendments, we have spoken within the Government and there is room for negotiation,” indicate sources from the Podemos leadership.
Regarding the initiative against evictions, the same sources confirm that “there is a desire for it to move forward” and this formation has also offered the PSOE “to sit down and talk about modifications and changes so that they can accept it.”
In Unidos Podemos they have also understood that the public fights of the draft such as those observed this past week do not benefit the whole of a Government with such precarious support and they are now striving to reduce the pressure exerted in recent days.
“Our desire is not to show visibility, but to open certain debates on issues that we cannot consent to, such as evictions in this current situation,” say sources from Podemos.
The goal for the two partners of the Government is to pass the next votes on the partial amendments to the public accounts. And the negotiation is not bad. Last Friday, in the Budget Committee of Congress, the initial report on the presentation of the General State Budget project for 2021 was already voted and to it, on the one hand, the 27 joint amendments registered by PSOE and United have already been incorporated.
We can, but also those negotiated and accepted between the PSOE and the Regionalist Party of Cantabria, 11 of the PNV and two of Teruel Existe.
As of this Tuesday, all the amendments presented by all the parties – except Vox, which has not formalized any – will begin to be discussed and analyzed in that Budget committee with the idea that the final opinion and the amendments that remain alive are debated before the plenary session between November 27 and December 3.
Those are the official deadlines that the PSOE and we can also now negotiate support to add to its 155 seats, pass the process of its first Budgets and give continuity to this unusual and convulsive legislature.
With the parties that have closed some modifications, PSOE and Podemos already reach 163 votes, which could be enough to overcome by the minimum the final vote, which does not require an absolute majority (176).
The Government and the two allied parties even trust that some formations with which they are in contact and that have not yet ratified their support could remain in the end in abstention, as could be the case of ERC (13), EH Bildu (five), the BNG (one) or even Ciudadanos (10).
The conversations that have already started and are well under way with Más País and Compromís (three deputies) and the representative of Nueva Canarias could broaden the yes side to more than 170 votes compared to 150 for no.
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