The Second Vice President and Minister of Labor, Yolanda Díaz, has shown this blunt Thursday against the Initiative of the European Increase in Defense Increase, which reaches Spain. “The plan to rearms that Ursula von der Leyen is incorrect,” said Díaz during the ‘European Funds V: towards strategic autonomy’, organized by Eldiario.es.
Díaz has insisted on a message: “The greatest expense in defense does not mean that we have better defensive capabilities. At all.” President Pedro Sánchez appeared yesterday in Congress to argue the need for the increase in the budget in defense up to 2% and act with “unit” with the European Union on this issue, as had happened during the Covid pandemic.
The leader of adding within the coalition government has argued that she does not share the White Defense Paper that the European Commission is promoted, for focusing on the increase in the budget in defense instead of “what a defense and security model is needed in the Europe of the 21st century, and doing so in a joint manner, coordinating us,” he defended.
“The White Paper proposal means staying in the uncoordination and raises the increase in the defense budget as an end in itself. It is not right. If Europe does this, it will be wrong,” said the second vice president.
“Do what Trump wants”: Buy weapons from the US
Yolanda Díaz has even stressed that an increase in immediate defense spending involves falling into “what Trump wants.” “In my country we dedicate 1.2% of GDP in defense,” recalled the second vice president, who has argued that a 2% increase, “immediately, we could only do it by doing what Trump wants, which is to buy the weapons from the US. If this is the vocation, it is not shared by us.”
The second vice president has insisted that the debate on the strategic autonomy of Europe is “key”, but “limiting it to defense is a great error.” Díaz has sustained the need to talk about European strategic autonomy in other areas, among which industrial policy has highlighted.
In a context of tariff policies and increased international competition, Yolanda Díaz has also called attention to the need to act internally to companies that act with “unfair competition” between European countries. For example, “companies that delocalize another European Member State because labor is cheaper, we have to talk about this in Europe.”
The discussion of the minimum wage and tax payment
Vice President Díaz has also referred to the discussion he keeps open with her governing partner, the Vice President and Minister of Finance, María Jesús Montero, regarding the taxation of the people who charge the minimum wage.
Both ministries are negotiating in recent days to try to reach an agreement, which seemed to be achieved this Wednesday, but finally truncated. This Thursday, Díaz has insisted on a new idea: not exempting the SMI from the payment of taxes involves breaking the government agreement.
“Compliance with the Government Agreement is 60% of the average net salary, but today we are not in 60% net for the taxation we have at the moment in Spain,” said the head of work.
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