This Wednesday’s meeting between the Government and parliamentary partners to try to bring together positions to renew the tax on extraordinary profits of energy companies has ended without an agreement and with the parties setting a new meeting next week. Expectations were minimal, after the PNV, first, and Junts, later, have planted the convener, the first vice president and Minister of Finance, María Jesús Montero. The groups have agreed to “invite again” those who have chosen not to attend today to seek a “consensus” position. But Montero has reiterated his willingness to extend the tax by royal decree-law, according to sources present.
In addition to the PSOE and Sumar coalition government, representatives of EH Bildu, ERC and BNG attended the meeting, and it was part of the demands that Podemos made to support the Government’s fiscal package. The party led by Ione Belarra wants the special tax approved to affect the extra income obtained by companies thanks to the war in Ukraine to become fixed. The PNV and Junts are opposed if some reservations are not added, such as discounting investments in decarbonization.
The differences between the Government’s parliamentary partners are notable on issues such as fiscal policy. In the case of the PNV and Podemos, there is a two-way animosity inherited from previous legislatures. In fact, the ‘jeltzale’ spokesperson in Congress, Aitor Esteban, attacked Belarra’s party by announcing this Wednesday morning his intention not to attend the meeting.
“It makes no sense to hold a meeting to discuss a tax between 7 or 8 parties at an open table,” he said in statements to the press. “Things are not discussed that way, especially with the press on the other side of the door,” he added. Esteban not only criticized the convenience of the meeting, but also questioned the “technical capacity of the interlocutors.” “We are all parliamentarians, these issues are complex. What criteria do they have? “These things have to be done seriously,” he added.
The spokesperson said that “beyond what some need in terms of the media and propaganda,” in reference to Podemos, the meeting was going to be “a mess,” and he demanded bilateral relations from the Government. A few hours earlier, on Tuesday night, the PNV already warned in a statement that “it does not feel obliged to take part in Podemos’s urge to convey an image to justify its irreversible support for a fiscal package.”
Podemos’s reply came through the mouth of its general secretary and also arrived in the halls of Congress. Belarra directly attacked the PNV’s relations with Repsol through the former Lehendakari, Josu Jon Imaz, current CEO of the oil company. “It seems that Imaz does not let Aitor Esteban go to the negotiation meeting for the energy tax, although the PNV had committed to it. Enough of parties that only defend the interests of those at the top,” he said.
After the meeting, Podemos showed its anger both with the parties that did not attend and with the Government, whom they accuse of not having pressured enough for all the groups to attend to the call. “This non-compliance reveals the Government’s lack of commitment to the energy tax. We once again demand that the PSOE comply with the agreement reached,” say party sources, who add that it is in doubt whether its deputies will support the fiscal package that must return to Congress after the amendments introduced in the Senate by the PP.
“In this context, the conditions do not even exist to begin the negotiation of the General State Budgets,” Podemos concludes.
Sources from EH Bildu assure this medium that “the will shown by those present is to achieve a sufficient consensus to achieve a majority that allows maintaining the tax contribution of energy companies.”
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