The decree law of measures against the crisis has been validated by the narrow margin of 176 votes in favor and 172 against. This is good news because the measures – some more effective than others – are urgent. Y economic expectations are worrying. On Thursday it was learned that the American economy – which grew 6.4% at the end of 2021 – has fallen 1.4% in the first quarter. And the ECB has just published a study to justify its serious error on inflation. The target is 2% and it is already at 7.4%. The apology: gas prices, aggravated by the war in Ukraine, and that the Fed (the American central bank) was also wrong.
It is not about shooting the guilty because the most learned economists Europeans and Americans have been wrong, but what would not be forgiven by God is not taking good note of the great uncertainty and the threat of inflation in Spain –despite the fact that it fell to 8.3% in April– is higher than the European average. And, barring a miracle, more measures will be necessary – rather unpopular – because the ECB is going to stop buying state debt in the summer, which is what has allowed the public spending programs against the crisis.
Before this panorama, the 176 to 172 is a flop. Pedro Sánchez himself knows it, because he said he wanted a great transversal pact and he has not achieved it. His supporters say that he has returned to survive despite the new complications (the CNI). Already in February the labor reform was only approved due to the error of a PP deputy. Sánchez continues, while his opponents in the 2019 elections –Pablo Casado, Albert Rivera and Pablo Iglesias– have disappeared… or they are chatterboxes. true, but Sánchez must not forget the old Castilian saying that “the pitcher goes to the fountain so much that in the end it breaks”.
And he is going to have to continue asking for many parliamentary endorsements. You will need fewer maneuvers and more empathy and capacity for conviction. Minister Bolaños himself made a more sober and coherent speech yesterday. It is normal that the Government did not accept all the proposals, some very debatable, of Núñez Feijóo, but not even negotiate them? The new leader of the right – who is more ruler than tribune to the Casado – it did not deserve for the Minister of Finance to wait for the last day to make contact with Juan Bravo, the financial manager of the PP.
And it is also not logical not to accept that the decree law be processed as a bill – that changes and improvements can be introduced – up to 12 hours before the debate in Congress. It is not a question of great coalitions, nor even of the useful bridge between the two great parties, but of ascertaining that it is absurd to ask with great words for new pacts of La Moncloa and then refuse to negotiate anything.
On the other hand, the PSOE-Podemos pact and the so-called majority of the investiture show repeated signs of exhaustion. This Thursday, Sánchez got more votes (176) than at his inauguration (167), but fights are our daily bread and the weather is different.
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Let’s go to Catalonia. The CNI wiretapping scandal is very serious, but the economic crisis is another negotiated. Yesterday the 11 Basque nationalist deputies (6 from the PNV and 5 from Bildu) validated the decree because –Merche Aizpurua ‘dixit’– they know how to prioritize. Of the Catalan nationalists, only five, led by Ferran Bel, from the former CDC, they did it. The other 19 voted against (13 from ERC, 4 from Junts and 2 from the CUP). Then someone does not understand that Basque nationalism has more posters in Madrid than Catalan.
The “ETA”? as the right disqualifies them, market today better than the successors of Pujol and Tarradellas?