Esquerra already warns that it will make the coalition partners “sweat” if they want to get their support in Congress
The Government has presented this Thursday in Congress the Bill of the General State Budgets (PGE) for 2023, the last of the legislature. A milestone for the coalition after resolving a large part of the differences between PSOE and United We Can -which leaves wounds due to military spending- but that will not mean a respite in Moncloa. With a parliamentary force of 155 deputies (waiting to replace Alberto Rodríguez’s seat), the Executive is now preparing to commission another arduous negotiation, and this time admits that it will be “complicated” with the allies of the so-called investiture bloc: PNV , ERC, More Country or EH Bildu.
Although it has already managed to circumvent this procedure in 2020 and 2021, the situation is now more complicated. To begin with, 2023 is an electoral year, with municipal and regional elections in May and the icing on the general elections, which still have no set date. This fact entrenches the positions of these formations, which will try to drag the PSOE and United We Can to their positions facing their electorate. The purples have already warned the Socialists that for some partners “it will be difficult” to vote in favor of some accounts that include a 25.8% increase in defense.
On the other hand, the Government’s forecast on which the Budgets are based is that Spain grows 2.1% of GDP in 2023, a figure that the Bank of Spain cooled this Wednesday by reducing it to 1.4%.
“A Long Month”
From Esquerra, a formation that has 13 parliamentarians in the lower house, its spokesman, Gabriel Rufián, has already warned the Executive that they will have to “sweat” to get their support. “Let no one take the ERC vote for sure for anything,” he settled, while warning the PSOE that he sees it “too calm” in the face of some laws that Republicans do not like, such as the audiovisual law, which “does not respect the co-official language.
The parliamentary spokesman for the PNV, Aitor Esteban, has stressed that the nationalists do not face the negotiation with “no red line”, but he did warn Sánchez that he must fulfill the commitments made in 2022 in order to reach an agreement. “October,” he predicted, “will be a long month.”
The price of EH Bildu in exchange for its support, expressed by its spokesperson, Mertxe Aizpurua, goes through “advancing on social issues”. «Next year, the last year of the legislature, there will probably be an extension of the Accounts. Therefore, it is very important to close many topics now », he reasoned.
On the other hand, the Treasury recognizes that these Budgets will be the last of the legislature. “It would not make sense to start a budget project in the fall of next year with the general elections so close,” they explain.
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