Budgets 2022, the fair recovery

October 22 2021 (10:10 WEST)

The Government of Pedro Sánchez has presented a General Budget for 2022 with the largest social spending in the history of our country to strengthen the Welfare State. The data is devastating: of every ten euros in the Budget, without European funds, six will be allocated to social investment. But, at the same time, they contemplate the largest investment to change the productive model and make it more modern, sustainable, green and cohesive.

These Budgets are already in the Congress of Deputies and, as soon as they arrived, they have sent two very clear messages. The first is to an opposition without a sense of State and thrown into the mountains of Trumpism and institutional disloyalty. To this we say that the Government intends to exhaust the legislature, because now it is not time for elections but to work together to rebuild a country punished by the coronavirus crisis.

The second message that is sent to the right and the far right is that, with these Budgets, we pursue a fair recovery to make Spain a more productive, more competitive and sustainable country, ensuring that economic improvement reaches all families. Therefore, they can forget about measures that harm the weakest and the middle classes, as happened with the financial crisis of 2008.

Faced with the catastrophic wishes of the opposition, all international organizations predict that Spain will recover the levels of economic activity and exceed the levels of employment prior to the pandemic. A strong recovery is coming and these Budgets have been designed to make the recovery fair, since they ensure that all social groups have more resources and better public services.

In addition, we turn our backs on the austerity that characterized the exit from the previous crisis, since the fiscal rules remain suspended in Europe and there is a broad consensus that economic stimuli must be maintained so that the economic recovery is not frustrated. Therefore, although we will reduce it, public debt will not be a drag on recovery, despite what some supposed liberal may think.

There is a tax novelty that has not gone unnoticed. The Budgets include the establishment of a minimum rate of 15% in the Corporation Tax, a measure that has the support of 130 OECD countries and that seeks to curb global tax competition that harms all states, since it reduces the resources they have to provide services and public policies.

Thanks to these new revenues, young people, for the first time, have their own chapter within the Budgets, the elderly will receive an increase in their pensions, public sector workers will see their salaries improved, and science and innovation will receive strong budgetary incentives. Our commitment extends to the Sustainable Development Goals, gender equality and the rights of children.

Likewise, dependency, health and education policies will have more resources than ever. For the protection of the most vulnerable, the Government will allocate 4,436 million to the payment of the Minimum Basic Income and family benefits. Similarly, feminism runs through the entire Budget, since practically 90% of the programs that comprise it contribute to the fight to close the gender gap.

Finally, the Budgets that the Government has sent to Parliament include the 27,633 million euros that we are entitled to receive from the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan. This important injection into Spanish investment means that practically nine out of every ten euros of European funds in 2022 will be allocated to investments. The main beneficiaries will be SMEs with investments dedicated to the modernization, transformation and digitization of the productive fabric, the recovery of tourism or the promotion of an entrepreneurial country.

There are also pessimists in the Canary Islands, despite the almost 900 million euros of direct investment for the Archipelago included in the Draft General State Budget Law for the coming year. That is without counting another 410 million euros to comply with the Canary Islands-State Highway Agreement that, at the time, was violated by the PP Government. Indeed, the fair recovery reaches our islands, becoming one of the first autonomous communities with the highest investment per capita in the State.

There is no doubt, our country has started up again and allows us to face the future with optimism.

Ariagona González, National Deputy and Minister of Environment, Heritage, Industry and Energy of the Cabildo de Lanzarote

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