Spain’s minority coalition government of the PSOE socialists and Sumar left-wing umbrella group wants to galvanise its deadlocked 2025 draft budget by linking part of it to urgent reconstruction funds following the devastating floods in Valencia, but denies the ‘blackmail’ accusations from the right-wing opposition.
Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s government unveiled its spending plans for next year back in September, forecasting a public deficit reaching 2.5% of annual economic output.
But the text has been on the backburner as the fragile coalition grapples with difficult parliamentary arithmetic.
Several Spanish governments have failed to pass their budgets since the EU country returned to democracy after the 1975 death of dictator Francisco Franco, including last year. They can avoid paralysis thanks to a constitutional mechanism that extends spending limits from the previous budget but constrains action to small adjustments.
‘No one would understand’ why Spain would settle for tinkering after its worst floods in decades, Budget Minister María Jesús Montero (main image) said in an interview in Sunday’s El País daily.
The torrents of muddy water have killed 222 people, wrecked infrastructure, destroyed businesses and submerged fields, with the final bill expected to soar to tens of billions of euros.
The Spanish government has already announced economic recovery measures collectively worth more than €14 billion, but they will affect the county’s budgetary outlook and require major adjustments. ALSO READ: Sánchez announces a further €3.8bn in flood aid as anger at leaders grows.
The government insists fresh public accounts for 2025 can accelerate the desperately needed aid. ‘To rebuild, a budget is necessary … the emergency requires it,’ Montero said.
Montero urged ‘unity’ from Spain’s polarised political class, but the main opposition, the right-wing People’s Party (PP), swiftly dashed any hopes the catastrophe would lay the ground for a new budget.
The flood victims ‘must not be used as bargaining chips in the budget negotiations’, the PP said in a statement, condemning Sánchez’s ‘blackmail’.
Montero hit back, saying it was ‘unacceptable’ that the PP is talking about ‘blackmail’ by stating that the government is seeking to push through the budget including aid to Valencia, when the prime minister ‘has not linked €10.6 billion to the budget’.
Junts per Catalunya (JxCat), a Catalan pro-independence party whose support is essential for government proposals to pass, expressed doubts about the budget if it is linked to flood recovery spending.
Releasing the aid ‘cannot wait for the long scrutiny of a theoretical budget’ and amendments to the current one can instead be adopted, JxCat said.
The government’s ‘political use’ of the tragedy is ‘unacceptable’ because it can already request EU funds and approve emergency loans and grants without a budget, business daily El Economista said.
María Jesús Montero ha calificado de “impresentable” que el PP hable de “chantaje” afirmando que el Gobierno busca sacar adelante los Presupuestos incluyendo ayudas a Valencia cuando el presidente “no ha vinculado 10.600 millones al presupuesto”. https://t.co/lqvc849Rg5
— laSexta Noticias (@sextaNoticias) November 10, 2024
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