2024-01-08 14:54:56
Podemos redoubles the pressure against the Government and is considering not supporting two of the three decrees that reach Congress this Wednesday. On Sunday, the party led by Ione Belarra said that it was considering rejecting the unemployment benefit reform, because it alleges that it entails a cut for people over 52 years of age, and this Monday it announced that it is considering not supporting the new package of measures by the party either. Executive against the economic crisis derived from the war in Ukraine. For the latter, they demand that it include a 2% limit on annual rent increases and new contracts (this year that barrier is 3%) and a limit with that same percentage for a basic food basket.
Junts confirms that it will overthrow the Government’s anti-crisis decrees: “Our seven votes are not a blank check”
Without the votes of Podemos or Junts, which confirmed this Monday that it will vote against these three measures, the Executive would lose its first votes in Congress just weeks after the new progressive coalition was formed. There are, at the moment, 183 deputies who will vote against the decrees if PSOE and Sumar do not open themselves to negotiating the demands of those parties.
In a press conference after the executive meeting, party spokespersons Isa Serra and Pablo Fernández expressed Podemos’s desire to vote in favor of the measures but as long as the Government commits to modifying them with their demands. The decree laws cannot be amended in the parliamentary process. They are voted on as they come out of the Council of Ministers. So if PSOE and Sumar accepted the changes proposed by the party, they would have to commit to processing that decree later in the form of a bill, already with those modifications included. And Podemos should vote in favor of the decree in this first instance.
“There are still days until Wednesday for them to sit down and agree with Podemos to withdraw measures that are harmful to citizens. Our vote will be favorable if there are no cuts,” Serra said this Monday. “We hope that the PSOE responds favorably in the coming days,” he insisted. Podemos has five deputies who are essential for the Government to carry out its initiatives in Congress. So if they rejected these measures, they would automatically decline.
Belarra’s party wants to introduce two essential issues in the anti-crisis decree. On the one hand, they seek to limit rent increases to 2%, both in annual revaluations that are usually carried out following the CPI and in new contracts. The housing law that Congress approved last year and that the Ministry of Social Rights co-presented with Belarra at the helm already included a 3% limit for these increases during 2024, but now the party wants to lower that barrier further.
The second point that they want to include is a cap also of 2% but this time for a basic food basket. It is a measure that Podemos tried to include on several occasions during the last legislature, although without success due to the opposition of the Socialist Party. Now, outside the Government, they hope that the dependence of their five deputies so that the Executive can take any measure will make them sit down at the table to negotiate. However, Podemos is not the only party that opposes these decrees as they are. Junts confirmed this Monday that it will vote against the three measures that the Executive brings to Congress on Wednesday.
Podemos will also vote against the decree with which the Government wants to modify the unemployment benefit. At the end of the year, after intense negotiations between Labor and Economy, Yolanda Díaz’s department achieved consensus within the Executive to carry out the review of the unemployment assistance system, which covers some 800,000 people and increases the amounts to 570 euros per year. month for new beneficiaries. It also included other measures such as increasing beneficiaries.
This reform maintains the aid at 80% of the Iprem (480 euros) for people over 52 years of age. But it will progressively lower the retirement contribution base for that sector as follows: it will be 120% in 2024; 115% in 2025; 110% in 2026 and 105% in 2027. If the aid were granted before June 1, 2024, the contribution base will continue to be 125%, as until now. The subsidy will be 570 euros in the first six months for most benefits, 540 in the following six and from then on it would remain at 480.
Podemos understands that this is a cut that it cannot accept and has asked the PSOE (with whom party sources assure that it is the only force in the Government with which they negotiate) to withdraw it. “If we accept cuts now, more will come. Pension cuts cannot be accepted. Remove the cuts and we will vote in favor,” Serra insisted this Monday at the press conference.
In Labor they reject that it is a cut. Sources from the ministry point out that when the contribution for those over 52 was raised to 125%, it was done to compensate for the SMI that existed before 2018. Now that minimum wage is double as a result of the successive increases approved by the progressive Government In the case of maintaining that 125% contribution, the situation arose that there are people who contribute more while receiving the subsidy than others who are working, explains Yolanda Díaz’s team. The decree, they add, “is the greatest advance in terms of unemployment benefits in democracy” and, therefore, in no case can it be considered a cut, as Podemos says.
Sumar calls for “responsibility” and moving away from “politics”
It is the same idea that Urtasun expressed this Monday at a press conference. “The measures of the decree represent a great advance and progress. They should be approved because they are progress,” said the spokesperson for the formation and Minister of Culture, who recalled that the decree also represents an increase in compensation for those over 45 and creates coverage for temporary agricultural personnel. “Putting forward this decree is about social justice, it is essential,” he explained.
“I call for responsibility. These decrees should come out unanimously if the parties thought about improving the lives of citizens,” Urtasun has asked both Junts and Podemos. “I call for responsibility. Useful politics is one that does not play politicking with essential measures for the well-being of our citizens,” he insisted when asked about the position of these two parties regarding Wednesday’s vote.
Urtasun has stated that they are talking and the negotiation channels remain open, although the categorical refusal of Junts and the positions of Podemos lead this vote to failure, after the PP, which on previous occasions voted in favor of the decree of anti-crisis measures or abstained, he has also confirmed that he will reject it this time. At the moment, the vote is lost with 183 votes against, less than two days before the Plenary Session is held in Congress.
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