If the centre-right Partido Popular rejects the draft 2025 budget, the country could lose €12 billion for regions and local councils, Digital Transformation and Civil Service Minister Óscar López warned on Monday.
In an interview with Spanish public broadcaster RTVE on Monday, López (PSOE/S&D)called the possible rejection by Partido Popular (PP) of the draft budget for 2025 “irresponsible”.
“It is extremely serious that Partido Popular (EPP), which on one hand is asking for more resources for the autonomous communities, is prepared to cut € 12 billion in two years for communities and town councils,” said López.
Despite the Partido Popular’s rejection of the new budget – a basic tool for implementing the social “roadmap” of the progressive PSOE government and the left-wing Sumar platform -the government will continue to try to persuade the right-wing party led by Alberto Núñez Feijóo to change its mind, López said.
“It is the government’s obligation to present a good budget for the country, and that is what we are doing, to dialogue with the groups to make it possible”, the minister, adding that if the government ultimately fails to approve the budget, it will be forced to extend the current accounts.
One of the main fears of Sánchez’s executive is that its main allies in parliament, the two Catalan separatist parties JxCat – the right-wing formation of former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont and its left-wing rival ERC, each with seven deputies in the national parliament – could withdraw their vital parliamentary support.
Last week, Puigdemont warned that his party would once again – as it did last July – reject the latest draft budget, which is due to be voted on in October in its final version.
Puigdemont’s party dealt a blow to Sánchez’s PSOE last week by voting with the PP and the far-right VOX party, the third largest force in parliament, against a government proposal to limit seasonal rentals.
The JxCat leader assured last weekend on X that his group’s vote this week “will not be decided with the aim of stabilising or wearing down” but will depend on the proposed negotiations.
“Our political vocation is not to provide stability or to wear anyone down. Our objective is to defend Catalonia and the interests of the Catalans, and whoever helps us will have our support, whether to govern or to oppose: whoever does the opposite, or whoever deceives us (or plays the fool), should not count on us,” the separatist leader stressed.
Agreements must be honoured, Catalan separatists warn
Relations between the PSOE and Puigdemont have progressively deteriorated in recent months, especially after the JxCat leader’s fleeting visit to Barcelona on 8 August, when he once again escaped from the Catalan police thanks to the complicity of several local agents.
Puigdemont is the subject of a national arrest warrant for the crime of embezzlement and alleged illicit enrichment in the organisation of an illegal Catalan pro-independence referendum on 1 October 2017 – a crime that is not considered to be covered by the controversial amnesty law that came into force in June this year.
However, as reported last week by Spanish media, it is highly likely that the Supreme Court judge investigating the case, Pablo Llarena, will soon lift the measure.
Although the agreement signed between the PSOE and Puigdemont in November 2023 included JxCat’s support for Sánchez’s inauguration and throughout his term (until 2027), the deterioration in bilateral relations has led the separatist party to assure that it will only vote in favour of government initiatives if all agreements are respected.
“If the PP votes against (the draft budget), it is likely that the government will lose the vote. That is the least of it. What is certain is that (Alberto Núñez) Feijóo will lose any opportunity to present himself to Spain as a politician of State”, PSOE’s spokesperson Esther Peña told a press conference on Monday.
(Fernando Heller | EuroEFE.Euractiv.es)
Source: euractiv.com
