The Congress Plenary approved this Thursday the draft of the 2021 General State Budget, the first budget since Pedro Sánchez was invested as president in 2018, and sent it to the Senate to complete its processing with the support of eleven formations that reach 189 deputies, which represents 54% of the Lower House.
Since the Constitution, governments with an absolute majority have approved the Budgets with more deputies, but according to the socialist Adriana Lastra, this is the time in which more votes from a greater number of political parties have been added.
Thus, the Government has surpassed the decisive votes of the sections of its Budgets with the votes of Esquerra Republicana, the PNV, EH-Bildu, the PDeCAT, Más País-Equo, Compromís, Teruel Existe, Nueva Canarias and the Regionalist Party of Cantabria. The PP, Vox, Ciudadanos, Junts, UPN, Foro Asturias, Coalición Canaria and the BNG voted against.
These votes have registered eight absences --only 342 votes have been counted--, most of them in the bloc of rejection of the accounts, since the supports have amounted to 188 supports against 154 votes against.
Accelerated processing, the PP does not include amendments, but it does with its vote
All this after an accelerated processing of the accounts in Congress --and so it is also foreseen in the Senate-- that has compressed the deadlines in order to reach January 1 with the accounts approved, despite being presented a month late with respect to the deadline set by the Constitution.
During its passage through Congress, the project has been subject to modifications derived from the different agreements with the budget partners, since the Government has refused to agree on any amendment with any formation that was not 'friendly' to its Budgets. Only one amendment agreed by the PSOE with Cs escaped this criterion when the 'orange' still postulating as partners.
The absence of Vox, which refused to present amendments, facilitated the votes in Committee. Already in Plenary, with all the deputies participating, the opposition managed to 'sneak' up to 18 partial amendments against the Government's criteria: 15 from ERC and another three from Junts. And the 155 votes of the PSOE and Unidas Podemos have not been able to reject specific proposals from ERC and Junts, when these have been supported by the PP, Vox, Cs and other formations, including budget partners.
More than 2.6 billion with the vote against the Government
With them, the Congress has limited the increase in VAT on sugary products - not to apply it to sweetened dairy products, and has substantially increased spending on items such as Dependency --increases by 566 million for the communities, doubling to 2.6 billion what was collected in the 2018 accounts--, but also in the educational and industrial fields.
And it is that of European funds the Congress has directed 1.5 billion for a plan for the recovery of industrial employment in areas affected by the closures, 370 million for Early Childhood Education, FP and the program to strengthen Primary and Secondary. The accounts also include a fund of 275 million for municipal public transport.
All these changes may be amended by the PSOE during the processing of the project in the Senate but if it introduces new modifications, these must be re-examined in a final and definitive round of voting in Congress, scheduled for December 29, before the entry into force of the Budgets.
There is no increase to diesel and the Government's salary is "frozen"
The Budgets arrived to the Congress Plenary with agreements to mobilize more than 250 million from its accounts and several legal modifications in the articles of the law. Already in the presentation, amendments from the PSOE and Unidas Podemos were added, such as the 'freezing' of Government salaries, the agreements with the PNV --eliminating the tax increase on diesel, a 50 million renovation plan for the machine-tool industry and territorial investments-- and investments promoted by the PRC and Teruel Existe.
With the PNV, the Government has also agreed to sell the Loyola barracks to the San Sebastián city council, legal modifications to encourage business participation in technology centers, incentives for the production of offshore wind energy with facilities in the ports, and territorial investments and transfers for more than 30 million euros.
Moratorium on Social Security contributions
With Esquerra Republicana, the budget agreement has resulted in 100 million euros in railway investments in Barcelona --60 million to AVE and 40 million in railway and Rodalíes--, a new moratorium on contributions for companies and self-employed workers of three months, 2.5 million euros to Maritime Rescue and another 4 million for humanitarian aid projects for refugees and asylum seekers, within a co-financing program between the General State Administration and the Generalitat of 8 million.
In the case of EH-Bildu, the most substantial item is aimed at reserving 10 million of European funds for R&D&I projects in the Aeronautical Technology Plan. Likewise, the accounts allocate one million euros for the Cercanías of San Sebastián, with the forecast of another 47 million euros until 2024.
Changes in the hiring of teachers and researchers
In addition to territorial investments, the Government has agreed with the PDeCAT legal changes in the Law of Universities to allow non-presential semi-public universities to hire associate professors under the same conditions as public ones, and the transfer of resources from the commuter network to the Generalitat of Catalonia in 2021.
With Más País the Government has agreed on territorial investments, expanding hiring assumptions in research centers, promoting citizen assemblies against climate change, a study that seeks low-emission alternatives to peninsular flights and a pilot project to promote a plant for the recovery of mining waste and electrical and electronic products.
In the case of Nueva Canarias, 100 million euros to this community for the execution of different judgments of the Supreme Court in the matter of roads, a plan to fight poverty of 30 million and investments of 15 million in the islands.
Finally, territorial investment amendments have been incorporated with the PRC --the arrival of the AVE to Cantabria is accelerated--, with Teruel Existe --including a national laboratory against depopulation-- and Compromís, with 65 million until 2024 for the railway connection of the Alicante-Elche Miguel Hernández Airport.
