• General Elections.The Government begins the rescue of more than 500 indebted municipalities during the campaign
  • General Elections 2019. Pedro Sánchez's promise to pensioners will cost 1,100 million more to Social Security
  • General Elections.Pedro Sánchez continues to hunt for the vote: he promises in Andalusia to reduce the steps to access the agricultural subsidy

Pedro Sánchez continues to accelerate in his policy of spending commitments in exchange for votes, and when there is still almost a month left to hold the elections, the president has already committed more than 6,600 million euros with his measures . Little or nothing has mattered the fact that he is in office, since his Executive has made a thorough effort to find the legal loopholes to undertake and promise these expenses.

The most bulky part is the one regarding the updating of the financing of the autonomous communities, which represents a disbursement of 4,682 million. This amount is the result of the update of the so-called deliveries on account, and it is money that, indeed, belongs to the regions. The problem is that during the negotiation with Podemos to try to form a Government, the Minister of Finance, María Jesús Montero, repeated on numerous occasions that it was totally impossible to undertake these deliveries with a functioning Government.

Montero, who used that remarkable amount as a measure of pressure with which to try to force Podemos, was supported by a consultation that the Ministry had transferred to the State Advocacy and according to which it was essential that there was a Government with full capacity for action to update deliveries. But after negotiations with the formation of Pablo Iglesias failed, the impossible became a "we will study it" and, finally, an electoral commitment of Pedro Sánchez . So much so, that the acting president announced it at a political rally last week, and yesterday it was approved in the Council of Ministers.

Pensions to the CPI

To this amount must be added another 821 million for municipalities for the same concept, as well as the cost of one of Sanchez's main electoral promises: the more than 1,100 million that will raise pensions with the CPI . This figure is, according to the calculations of Enrique Devesa, professor at the University of Valencia and one of the largest experts in pensions in Spain, is the difference between applying the 0.25% increase that marks the law and the indexation promised by Sánchez.

Specifically, raising pensions with the CPI of 1.1% estimated by the Bank of Spain for next year represents an increase in spending of about 1,500 million. Meanwhile, if 0.25% were applied that the law that remains in force marks in case of deficit, the disbursement would remain at a little less than 400 million, figures that show that difference of just over 1,100 million and that also consolidate an expense in the Social Security bill amounting to 15,000 million .

Sánchez has not yet clarified how he will carry out this increase since, in order to modify the current law, a decree or a new legislation is necessary, something that in both cases is only available to a Government with full capacity to act. However, as this newspaper advanced, the Executive also transferred a consultation to the State Advocacy on this aspect, and the key seems to be to justify the action as of "extreme and urgent need." In any case, the socialist candidate has already secured, and did so at the first point of his electoral program, that "in the next month of December we will update the 2020 pensions in accordance with the real CPI."

But there is more, since Sanchez has also begun in full pre-campaign the rescue of more than 500 indebted municipalities, in addition to promising the reduction of peonadas to access the agricultural subsidy and undertake "a response plan" to the tariffs imposed by The United States that includes a financing line of up to 200 million euros bonus in hiring. In the latter case, the Government once again points out that it is a measure of "urgency and extreme need", something that, however, cannot be applied in such electoral actions as the rescue of the municipalities and, above all, the actions .

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

Know more

  • Pedro Sanchez
  • Social Security
  • Pensions
  • We can
  • U.S
  • Spain
  • Maria Jesus Montero
  • Pablo Iglesias

SpainCruzada de Pablo Iglesias against the bank to mark left profile against Pedro Sánchez and Íñigo Errejón

PoliticsCarmen Calvo: "Until you give up the coalition we don't sit down anymore"

According to the Bank of Spain, linking pensions to the CPI as promised by Sánchez questions the viability of Social Security