The Government sends a wink to its partners and opens to make minimal changes in the labor reform

The government has little more than a month of margin, until February 5, to get their usual parliamentary allies to agree to validate the real decree-law of the labor reform that Moncloa has designed for months with the patronal and the unions CCOO and UGT. Given the reluctance of the partners and the difficulty of this second negotiation in Congress, the Executive sent them a wink this Monday: the decree-law is open to processing as a bill, so that the groups could present amendments both in the lower house and in the Senate. Of course, Moncloa is only willing to carry out minimal changes, because it wants to avoid at all costs that the employers or the union centrals leave the pact.

Maria Jesus MonteroHe told the media that, although he expects the text to “suffer as few variations as possible,” the Government is willing to introduce minor modifications. “I do not contemplate the possibility that the decree-law is not validated, although another different question is that it is processed as a bill, and that is where we call to respect as far as possible the agreement, the result of a dialogue quite honest and in which the social agents, once again, have been at the height of the country and have shown the patriotism that they have been demonstrating since the beginning of this pandemic, “he declared in Seville, where he attended the inauguration of the new mayor, the socialist Antonio Muñoz. The minister also included darts to the PP, which this Monday reaffirmed in his ‘no’ to the new legislation. In his opinion, Pablo Casado hides behind “childish and inmadic” because it has no compelling reason before a text that has been “dialogue and agreed” with the entrepreneurs themselves.

ERC, PNV and Bildu start the path from ‘no’. They regret that the Executive of coalition PSOE-United We can act as if it had an absolute majority that it does not have. The validation of the decree-law requires only more ‘yeses’ than ‘noes’ (abstentions can also be agreed) and the Government only has the backing of its 155 deputies (120 socialists and 35 purple). The mood, despite everything, does not decline in the PSOE. Sources of the parliamentary group aware of the negotiation explain that in these first days of contacts they have seen “with predisposition” to reach an agreement with the PDECat (4 deputies), Teruel Existe (1), Nueva Canarias (1), Coalición Canarias ( 1) and Compromís (1).

The Republican group, with 13 seats that may be decisive once again, has already expressed some of its requests. The ‘president’, Pere Aragonès, reported on Saturday that they will demand that the Generalitat have full powers in the ability to authorize or not employment regulation files of companies with a presence in Catalonia. The PNV (6) requires the “priority” of Basque agreements over state-level ones. And Bildu (5) will not support the validation if the collective bargaining process is not “destatalized” in the amendment process. In an opinion article in ‘Público’, Otegi warns that “the Spanish left” must understand that “plurinationality is defended and exercised respecting the different social, economic and union realities of the different nations of the State.”

The BNG deputy in Congress, Néstor Rego, for his part, affirmed that he maintains contacts with ERC and Bildu to make a “common front” against the “disappointing” labor reform so that the Government “repeals” the legislation of the PP, a verb used by the Government of coalition during months.

The Executive, in need of support, is willing to show the PP that he is wrong when encastillarse in the ‘no’ and reject a framework that employers have blessed. That is why he has sent the message that he is willing to take the hand that Ciudadanos has extended to him (9 seats). To the formation of Inés Arrimadas the relevance of those nine seats He can put a focus on it that he had lost after the weakness that his party suffers from the collapse in the elections of Catalonia and, later, in those of Madrid. And the calendar is favorable: the contacts of the PSOE and United We can with the groups they will take place throughout January, when there are only two weeks left for the elections in Castilla y León, where they will fight not to disappear from the Cortes. Right now it has 12 attorneys.

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The PP, meanwhile, reaffirmed this Monday that it will vote ‘no’ to the decree-law. Casado already said last week that the changes introduced do not imply the “repeal” of Mariano’s labor reform Rajoy, but he pointed out that his party is not there to “rescue Sánchez.” The top leader of the conservatives has decided to withstand the pressure that comes to him from the employer’s association and also ignore the messages of the FAES Foundation, of the former president José María Aznar, and of the Galician president, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, who asked to wait to read the text in detail before making a decision, and maintains his rejection of any collaboration with Pedro Sánchez.