Junts increases pressure on the Government in the final stretch of the multi-negotiation to agree on the 2025 General Budgets and the partial transfer of powers in immigration policy to the Generalitat of Catalonia, as well as other issues included in the investiture pact of Pedro Sánchez still pending to apply. The object chosen to put pressure on the Executive is the fiscal package that Carles Puigdemont’s people had already accepted and voted in favor of. Junts has negotiated with the PP in the Senate additions to the counter-reform proposed by the PP and which deducts 9,000 million from the public coffers. Those of Alberto Núñez Feijóo have supported two minor amendments and everything now depends on what happens on Thursday in Congress, where the final vote will be held.
The PP chose not to veto the tax reform that the Government brought out in Congress with the support of its usual parliamentary allies, including Junts and PNV. A reform that includes, among other issues, a 15% floor in the corporate tax of multinationals, the increase in personal income tax on the capital income of the richest and making the banking tax fixed. The energy tax remains to be closed, about which a meeting has been called this Wednesday.
The opposition’s intention was to take advantage of the tensions between the Government and Junts that have been made public in recent weeks, to introduce amendments that could attract the Catalan right, and perhaps also the Basque one, and thus break the investiture block. in Congress on the eve of important parliamentary votes.
In addition to modifying the Government’s fiscal package for an amount of 9,000 million euros, according to Treasury calculations, a notable discrepancy at this procedural moment could derail the talks to close the State Accounts for 2025. Or, at least, that It was the aspiration of the PP. And that is why they chose to assume the bulk of the Government’s package.
Junts deflated that balloon quickly. Also the PNV. Both have refused to vote in favor in the Senate of the changes introduced by the PP, taking advantage of its absolute majority. A ‘yes’ from one or the other would entail a favorable vote also in Congress and the consequent breakup of the parliamentary majority that supports the Executive. This agreement, according to Junts sources consulted by elDiario.es, allows them to maintain suspense until Thursday, when it will finally be voted on in the Lower House.
The PP’s move was difficult, and it did not happen. But Junts chose to negotiate with the PP so that they would support some of its amendments. The conversations, which on the part of the PP have been led by the Deputy Secretary of Economy, Juan Bravo, have been open until the end of this Tuesday and have concluded with a minimum crossed agreement from which both sides take advantage.
The PP has supported two Junts amendments. One to reduce VAT on products that use fermented milk, especially yogurt, to 4%. The cost, according to the Government, is 178 million euros. The second amendment is much milder: expanding the scope of bonuses to 100% in hiring in non-professional sports clubs so that it is also allowed for associations that have a professional player in their ranks.
In the debate this Tuesday in the Senate, both the PNV spokesperson, Maria Dolores Etxano, and the Junts spokesperson, Joan Baptista Bagué, expressly mentioned the agreement they have closed with the Government for the fiscal package. Etxano has described the pact as the “lowest possible common denominator” that “could have been agreed according to parliamentary arithmetic.” “Some groups have forgotten that we must move in squaring the circle,” he said, without specifying who he was referring to. The PNV maintains an open confrontation with Podemos over the energy tax.
“The PNV will vote in coherence with the agreements reached with the Government,” Etxano concluded. Bagué has also defended that this agreement has prevented them from voting on some PP proposals that perhaps they could see well. The Junts senator confirmed from the podium that his group has “agreed on some points” with the PP “that will be reflected in the votes”, in reference to the amendments already mentioned.
Bagué concluded: “Junts is not part of the G bloc, it defends the interests of the Catalans. Make no mistake, do not take our votes for granted.”
“Reflect and vote conscientiously,” was the response they received from the PP spokesperson, Carlos Alfonso Polanco. The PP’s absolute majority has overturned all the amendments except for the two from the Catalan pro-independence right.
The first of them, number 31, has received 249 votes in favor, eight against and six abstentions. The second, number 32, has gone ahead with 150 yeses, 103 noes and 10 abstentions.
What Junts and PP achieve is to maintain pressure on the Government. Junts, because it has in its power not only to push forward its amendments in Congress next Thursday, when the fiscal package will be voted definitively. Junts thus leaves open the possibility of voting in the Lower House on some or all of the amendments proposed by the PP in the Senate. This has been stated by Junts sources in the Senate, who have also maintained that the negotiation now depends on the main officials of Puigdemont’s party in Congress.
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