The Government saves the decree on tariffs with Junts, the abstention of Podemos and the rejection of the PP | Spain

The government has saved again against the horn this Thursday in Congress Decree on tariffs To confront the commercial war unleashed by the Trump administration and has signed up somewhat and a political relief at another time of overwhelming this convulsive legislature. Junts wanted to keep the tension until the end and He has not ratified his vote until after the discussion in the plenary And after announcing meetings in extremis and bilateral with the Executive negotiator, the Minister of Economy, Carlos Body. The very critical abstention of Podemos has been just as determining, every day more oblivious to everything that smells of the alliance of Pedro Sánchez with Yolanda Díaz, and that considers the help measures insufficient and demanded expropriations to the « Yankis vulture funds » with homes in Spain. The PP has confirmed another break in this matter with the government and has rejected the norm because it demands an entire alternative tax and energy program.

The package of aid, loans, incentives and credits approved by the Government by decree on April 8 with the urgent measures of response to tariff and commercial relaunch threat This has been validated by Parliament with a sufficient majority of 176 votes in favor (PSOE, add, ERC, Junts, PNV, EH Bildu, BNG, Canarian Coalition, Union of the Navarrese People and José Luis Ábalos), 169 against (PP and Vox) and the four abstentions of Podemos. It is valued at 14,100 million euros and aims to cushion the blow to the most exposed sectors, such as wine, oil or automotive, and thus take advantage of the crisis caused worldwide by Trump to modernize the country’s productive structure.

That was the argument of the Executive who highlighted the Minister of the Corps, who previously agreed in conversations with the leftist parliamentary groups that are his natural allies and the one he tried to use to attract the interlocutor nominated by the PP, the Vice Secretary of Economy, Juan Bravo. Body contextualized that response to « The complexity, volatility and international uncertainties » generated by Trump and encompassed it in the agreed with unity within the European Union on its values ​​of « multilateralism and free trade. » The minister extolled the plan as « ambitious » in the short and long term and dialogued with all kinds of actors. Almost all speakers, of all the less Vox parties, valued « the cordiality » and the level of contacts, information and data provided by body, some in contrast to other ministers.

In the result of the vote, even the UPN alliance, which President Pedro Sánchez labeled in Wednesday’s complicated debate as “the terminal” of the PP in Navarra. In the Government and the PSOE, they stressed that in these wiring conditions in which they have to survive day by day in Parliament this week they have won 18 votes and have lost only three (one wrong amendment of ERC and two points of a motion of the PP). The balance of the Legislature records 1,113 votes, with 992 in favor and 121 against.

Faced with the so -called reciprocal tariffs imposed by Trump of 20% for the generality of European products, the option intended in Spain of a bipartisanship state pact seemed possible a few days, due to the moderate profile of the two negotiators involved, but it was not in this case either. The PP initially showed its disposition to the contacts, after Trump’s drift, but that truce threatening lasted until Junts pointed out that he could vote in favor if he assured that 25% of the items would be allocated to Catalan companies and industries that already work with the US. The popular ones led him to “separatist quota”.

The PP spokesman advanced on Monday of this week that his party would be located again in the NO and blamed the government for not accepting any of the 12 alternatives that he raised in his negotiations. In the PP plan they included the autonomies in the reallocation of the Next Generation funds, redesign the MOVES III Plan (of incentives to efficient and sustainable mobility), and that the Executive detail the conditions of the guarantees (5,000 million euros) and the ICO credits (1,000 million).

The PP, in the end, chose to harden those conditions and, after the great blackout of April 28, added matters that would not have much connection with the tariffs, such as expanding the useful life of the nuclear or a tax decrease. The Government ruled out that option and the president Sanchez came to reproach Alberto Núñez Feijóo on Wednesday Like nothing to do with « bacon and speed. » Bravo dispatched those “adhesion” attempts as “a patch of insufficient and ineffective minimums”, he riveted that this “solution” is not that of the PP and pointed out that the minister had lacked authority in the cabinet against the “wall” ordered by Sánchez to assume some of his alternatives.

Juns also either wasted the opportunity to mark a territory, in the vote and in his speech. His spokesman, Josep Maria Cruxet, did not want to show the yes in his exhibition, but did not leave space for doubt. He presented the Conditions of Junts, which in addition to guaranteeing 25% of the planned instruments of aid for Catalan export firms, consist of imposing a report and a quarterly appearance of the Minister of Economy before Congress and its bilateral monthly appointments. Cruxet summarized again the « tangible » effectiveness of the Junts method in this delicate mandate in Congress, where his seven votes are key to almost everything: « If negotiated as in this case with rigor and is fulfilled, Junts also meets. » The deputy of the formation led by Carles Puigdemont picked up there the recurring thread of his spokesman in the Chamber, Míriam Nogueras, to review all the historical virtues for centuries of the hard Catalan people in front of others.

The usual partners confirmed their support with their territorial nuances (CC, PNV or BNG) and ideological (ERC, add or EH Bildu) and laid out hard against Trump. Podemos went further, even if it stood in abstention. His spokesman, Javier Sánchez Serna, disabled the decree as a mere “partial and poorly focused management response” and demanded more determination, pricing stops for products of maximum necessity and the expropriation « of yankis funds of housing and telecommunications. » ERC was also located in yes and requested less dispersion and more attention to the maintenance of employment in those strategic sectors.

Vox spokesman Jacobo González Robatto, not only did not hide the vote against but presumed that its president, Santiago Abascal, had personally gone to express his repairs to the US president, and a sarcasm was allowed to the influence of what was approved: « Surely Trump is crying and crowded. » The minister got up at the end to collect a few words from the spokeswoman for the PNV, Idioa Sagastizabal, who repeated in the direction of the PP: « It is very difficult to understand and explain that in this context you do not want to help companies. »