Sumar will not renounce the special tax on large energy companies and aspires to continue negotiating it until the end despite having reached an agreement with the Socialist Party for a broad fiscal package that does not include that tax. The plurinational group has left an amendment alive and hopes that the pressure from the rest of the left-wing parties in Congress will manage to move its government partner. ERC and EH Bildu already forced this Monday to postpone the vote in the Finance Commission to prolong the negotiation and Podemos has warned this Tuesday that it will not support the reform if that tax is withdrawn.
The PSOE is thus in the middle of a dilemma that divides the investiture bloc into ideological blocs and highlights that the majority that emerged from 23J can serve to advance democratic measures but not so much for those that have to do with the redistribution of the left. On the one hand, PNV and Junts negotiated with the Ministry of Finance a tax reform that leaves out the most left-wing partners. That is why Sumar recognizes that this negotiation is “demonized.”
“We have not given up anything. We keep our amendments alive and we are going to try to get it approved until the end and we are going to continue fighting,” said Sumar’s substitute spokesperson, Txema Guijarro, this Tuesday at a press conference in Congress. Sumar reached an agreement this Monday with the PSOE, shortly before the Finance Commission was held that sought to give an opinion on the bill that seeks to raise the minimum corporate rate for multinationals to 15% and that the Government wants to convert into a broader fiscal package.
In this set of measures, Sumar agreed with the socialists, among other issues, to maintain the special tax on banks, create a new tax on luxury and raise personal income tax two points on capital income of more than 300,000 euros, among other measures. But the pact, which obliges the plurinational group to vote in favor of the bill when it reaches the plenary session, leaves out the tax on electricity companies. All because the socialists have already committed to Junts above all and also to the PNV to withdraw it. Both parties have strong pressure from employers in their territories to overturn this tax.
Guijarro has criticized the Treasury’s decision to begin negotiations with them before with the left-wing parties. “We like to start building majorities on the left. We believe that this is the best way to ensure that a sufficient number of votes are reached and that progressive policies are adopted. From there, if I had been the ministry I would have started differently, not with Junts and the PNV,” he said.
These previous agreements reached with the nationalists make the support of ERC, EH Bildu and also Podemos very difficult. So much so that this Monday, when the Republicans warned that they would reject the ruling, the PSOE decided to postpone the planned debate in the Finance Commission. The deadlines that the socialists managed sought to have a ruling on Monday and have the law approved this Thursday in the Plenary. With yesterday’s decision, the Commission will meet again on Thursday and the law falls from the Plenary this Monday, pending the next steps.
Podemos will not support a reform that “cuts progress”
As on other occasions in this legislature, Podemos is determined to make use of its four deputies in Congress, essential to carry out any initiative. “We consider that a reform can be carried out that does not include cutting back on the progress of the previous legislature,” the Podemos spokesperson in Congress, Javier Sánchez Serna, said this Tuesday, in reference to that tax on electricity companies promoted by the previous PSOE government. and United We Can.
Now, if the text does not include eliminating that tax, says Ione Belarra’s party, they will not support it. The group complains that the Government has not even contacted them to negotiate and that they learned of the agreement between Sumar and the socialists through the press.
“We hope to be able to negotiate that progress can be included but without setbacks in a new zero-sum game that I believe leads to nothing, it is moving the ball in a cup,” explained Sánchez Serna.
“Sometimes the lesser evil is the direct path to a greater evil. We put up an important fight last term saying that energy companies had to assume greater social responsibility. It seems to us that there is no excuse given what we are seeing for energy companies not to contribute and not assume greater responsibility,” he added.
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