The threat of tax reform that we are witnessing is the best example of the immense weakness of this Government. The exchange orchestrated by the Minister of Finance is doomed to failure. At this point in the party, none of the parties that have given air to this legislature seem willing to look the other way in the shell game that the negotiation of each of the laws has become. The eventual benefit or benefits of continuing this legislature does not compensate for the electoral cost of remaining linked, even tangentially, to this decomposing Government. The chronology of the negotiation is a good example that things have changed. As on other occasions regarding the economy, the Government chose to first gain the support of the conservative parties to give it to the rest. However, everything has gone wrong. First, PNV and Junts have sold their support more expensively and have not allowed – or, rather, have only half-allowed – that the government will carry out measures that go against the most orthodox economic approaches – tax on energy companies and, to a lesser extent, to the banks because they have worse press, in short -, which has caused them at the other end to raise their voices demanding, in exchange for their support, another series of headless counterparts – elimination of tax exemptions for SOCIMIs or medical insurance among others – which has caused the negotiation to derail. The positions are irreconcilable and it does not seem that anyone is going to change their position in the few hours left for the transposition of the European directive that promoted this tax reform through the back door of the Government to be approved on time. The most likely solution is a minimum agreement that serves to transpose the European tax directive without major reforms. The paradox could even arise that the PSOE needed the support of the Popular Party. Some of their partners are not willing to support anything other than what they have previously agreed upon. If so, the ‘finish’ photo of this parliamentary procedure would be one to remember. The Government does not have the capacity to promote any economic reform. Neither this tax reform, nor the spending ceiling at the time nor, most certainly, the General State Budgets in the coming weeks even though they are already completely out of date. In these circumstances, the option of moving forward seems like an alternative that has no signs of going very far. From defeat to defeat, until the final disappearance.
