MADRID, 5 Feb. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The general secretary of the PP, Cuca Gamarra, announced this Monday that the PP will vote ‘no’ to the budget stability objectives for all public administrations in the Senate Plenary Session to be held this week, so these will decline have this political formation absolute majority in the Upper House.
Gamarra, in statements to RNE reported by Europa Press, has indicated that the path of budgetary stability was already debated in the Congress of Deputies, with the vote against the PP.
“There has not been any type of variation in this regard in terms of the position and the proposal that is carried out. And we must not forget that what is voted on is what supports the economic policy of the Government of Spain, an economic policy with which the PP does not agree,” Gamarra stated.
The general secretary of the PP has warned that “it is not the best way” for the Government of Spain to “continue spending at the expense of all Spaniards.”
“What is being demonstrated is that the Government is the main beneficiary of inflation and in the end this is not what Spain or the Spanish people need. Today a different economic policy is needed, a fiscal policy that seeks to alleviate the pockets of the Spanish people. “remarked Gamarra, who recalled that, in this sense, the PP has proposed lowering the VAT on meat and fish.
The ‘popular’ leader has stated that the PP “does not support the deficit objectives” of the Government because they do not respond to the needs that the autonomous communities have put on the table, about which she has denounced that their fiscal autonomy is not respected.
“There are taxes at the moment that the autonomous communities are reducing and even eliminating, seeking economic reactivation, where unilaterally what the State is proposing is to recover them from another side, preventing fiscal autonomy,” he noted.
Gamarra has insisted that “there are many issues to not endorse the economic policy” of the Government, “designed to collect more to be able to spend more and not to alleviate the fiscal burden” that Spaniards bear through VAT and personal income tax.
The Senate vote on budget stability objectives for all public administrations is expected to take place this Wednesday.
With its vote against, the absolute majority of the PP in the Senate will cause the budgetary stability objectives to decline, which were validated by the Congress of Deputies and which represent the first step in the preparation of the General State Budget project ( PGE) of 2024.
The vote on these objectives will be carried out with the 2023 Budgets already extended because the Executive has not been able to approve a public accounts project before January 1, 2024 due to the electoral calendar and the subsequent investiture process.
This has occurred as a result of article 134 of the Constitution, which determines that if a Budget has not been approved before January 1, those of the previous year will be automatically considered extended.
The intention of the Ministry of Finance was to approve the General State Budget law (PGE) for 2024 before April. To this end, it determined the limit of non-financial spending, known as the spending ceiling, of the State Budget for 2024, at 199,120 million euros, 0.5% more than the previous year, including funds from the European Union.
In the last meeting of the Fiscal Policy Council with the autonomous communities, the Treasury proposed a deficit of 3% in 2024 for all Administrations, 2.7% in 2025 and 2.5% in 2026.
In the case of the autonomies, a target of 0.1% was established for 2024. For 2025 and 2026, the communities will seek budget balance. For local entities, the budget balance (0%) from 2024 to 2026 was also agreed, while for Social Security the deficit was set at 0.2% for 2024, 0.1% for 2025 and 0% by 2025.
But the spending ceiling is not voted on in the Cortes, only the budget stability and public debt objectives, which will have to be aligned with European fiscal rules, after years suspended due to the pandemic.
According to the Budget Stability Law, if the Congress or the Senate reject the objectives, the Government, within a maximum period of one month, will submit a new agreement that will be subject to the same processing procedure.
If the objectives are not approved up to two times, according to a report from the State Attorney’s Office, the stability objectives would be those included in the Stability Program sent to the European Commission last April, which are more demanding for communities and town councils. .
Specifically, the objectives that would be applied with the ‘no’ of the PP in the Senate establish budgetary stability for autonomous communities and a surplus of 0.2% for city councils, which means giving less margin for spending by both Administrations.
In the event that the Cortes Generales definitively approve the objectives proposed by the Government, the Fiscal and Financial Policy Council would have to meet again. But if those of the April Stability Program are finally applied – more restrictive – that meeting would not take place.
