The popular ones at the head of the Seville City Council confirmed this Tuesday that they are in tune with Vox, by accepting 14 of the 20 amendments that the far-right party had presented to its budget project for 2025. The left-wing parties in the opposition have rejected This communion because the majority of the proposals with which the PP has agreed will be financed at the expense of cutting equality programs or care for the immigrant population.
Among the approved amendments, the signing of a new agreement with the Prolife association of Seville “for the creation of an aid package aimed at helping pregnant women and mothers assisted by this association that fights against abortion,” according to the document presented by the far-right party to which this newspaper has had access.
In accordance with the Vox approach endorsed by the PP in the extraordinary Treasury commission held this Tuesday, the aforementioned anti-abortion entity will be subsidized through a new item endowed with 15,000 euros taken from the funds coming from the UGT equality plan, framed in the Equal Opportunities Plan program. Another 15,000 euros will be deducted from this same plan (but, on this occasion, from CCOO) to expand the agreement signed with the religious entity Villa Teresita, whose municipal subsidy will increase, from 12,000 to 27,000 euros.
The agreement sealed between PP and Vox also means expanding the municipal financing received by the religious congregation of the Oblate sisters, adding 17,000 euros from the Unidad program against gender violence. Another 39,000 euros will be cut from the Equal Opportunities Plan to “increase the budget allocated to investment in the rehabilitation of street market sites.”
Promotion of birth rates among the immigrant population
Along with the funds destined for equality and combating gender violence, the other program that is harmed by the agreement between PP and Vox is the one related to Intervention for the immigrant population and ethnic minorities. Specifically, 50,000 euros of these funds will be diverted to finance the creation of what Vox calls the “municipal office to help pregnant women,” intended to provide assistance to pregnant women who require it.
Another 90,000 euros from that same program will be allocated to “the specific creation within the municipal budget of an intervention program with pregnant women from the Polígono Sur at risk of social exclusion, who belong to the Roma community.” That same amount is going to be invested in the creation of a new program to “help returned emigrant Sevillians”, with a view to encouraging the return of Sevillians under 35 years of age who are working abroad.
Likewise, the PP has agreed to reduce the funds of the Development Cooperation program, diverting 100,000 euros to develop a plan of direct aid to families to promote birth rates. This is a “birth bonus program,” according to Vox’s proposal, which suggests granting bonuses of variable amounts “depending on the socioeconomic conditions of the beneficiaries.”
A “regression” of social rights
While the popular party supported 70% of the amendments of the far-right formation, both the socialist group and the Con Podemos-IU coalition have voted “flatly against.” These have been the words of the Izquierda Unida councilor, Ismael Sánchez, who has described the approval of the amendments as “a frontal attack on fundamental rights and the social fabric that sustains the city.”
“We are not going to be complicit in this budget assault or this democratic setback,” Sánchez said to justify his opposition to amendments “that seek to dismantle public policies that are fundamental for coexistence and social rights,” in his own words. “Our commitment is to an inclusive, supportive Seville and with budgets that meet the needs of the majority and not particular interests,” the mayor added, condemning that the popular party has “bent to the agenda of the extreme right.” .
The deputy spokesperson for the PSOE of Seville, Sonia Gaya, has spoken along the same lines, who considers that the PP has “portraited itself” with this pact, showing that “it is willing to do anything to remain in the chair.” Gaya has reproached those of José Luis Sanz for having accepted conditions that hide “a marked ideological bias and that would represent serious setbacks in social rights,” as the socialist councilor has warned. “With the amendments they have accepted, both due to the destination and the origin of that money, they are making Seville enter into involutionist policies, into reactionary policies,” criticized the PSOE deputy spokesperson.
“Fundamental” items for equality
In addition to the overwhelming rejection by left-wing groups, the pact sealed between PP and Vox to approve the 2025 accounts has aroused the indignation of the unions. After the Finance Commission, CCOO Sevilla has regretted that the Popular Party has “assumed the reactionary agenda of the extreme right and has endorsed cuts, dismantling and privatization in items that were fundamental for the fight against sexist violence, the eradication of xenophobia, cooperation to development, equality and the fight against the wage gap suffered by women.”
From the union organization led by Carlos Aristu in Seville, it is explained that the equality program “vetoed” by PP and Vox when approving the amendments to the budget was designed to provide “advice on equality plans to workers and companies. the capital.” Within the framework of this program, the union has carried out 220 consultations and trained 700 people, 70% of them women.
According to its general secretary, “in Seville women earn, on average, 5,000 euros less per year than men; a wage gap that CCOO helped eradicate every year with advice for the negotiation of equality plans in companies in the capital.” Now, in Aristu’s eyes, those 15,000 euros will be invested in “the expansion of the financing that religious entities had been receiving, the creation of subsidies to anti-abortion organizations and also the creation of beach bars such as the office to help pregnant women, “which will carry out work that is already carried out today by the Comprehensive Women’s Care Centers and the Social Services of the Seville City Council from a technical perspective free of bias.”
Some accounts negotiated with Vox
From the PP, the Treasury delegate and spokesperson for the local government, Juan Bueno, has defended that the amendments that have been approved “are perfectly acceptable and do not compromise the social action that this municipal government has been developing since the mandate began.” In this sense, he has accused the left-wing parties of “resorting to the discourse of fear without having worked”, reproaching that “none has presented amendments or shown willingness to negotiate the accounts for the city.”
Hours before, the mayor of Seville, José Luis Sanz, acknowledged that the 2025 budget has only been negotiated with Vox, as it was “the only party that has agreed” to it. Now, once 70% of the far-right party’s amendments have been admitted, the Seville councilor hopes to have the 2025 accounts approved before the end of January.
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