The Government forced to vote the energy tax in Parliament, four days after knowing that it was 'wet paper' in Brussels

The Government forced a parliamentary vote last Tuesday on a bill to establish "temporary taxes" on energy companies and banks, despite the fact that it had known for at least four days before that it was a dead letter by not adjusting to what marked Brussels.

According to a document to which EL MUNDO has had access prepared "for the Extraordinary Council of the EU Energy Ministers on the 9th" -including the third vice president, Teresa Ribera- the European Commission was already opting for a very different type of tax focused on benefits and not on income as PSOE and Podemos managed to approve.

The one raised in the document and which already warned the ministers of what the communication from the president of the European Commission,

, would raise days later, clearly stated that what it supports is "a contribution to solidarity" but not about sales, but '

already calculated for national purposes.

Companies and national authorities are familiar with these rules and procedures.”

However, what was voted on Tuesday was the taking into consideration of a tax in the form of "patrimonial provision" taxing 1.2% on sales of large energy companies and 4.8% on commissions and net interest from banks .

With these temporary and extraordinary taxes in fiscal years 2022 and 2023,

The Minister of Finance,

, already admitted this Thursday, almost a week after the Commission document, that she will bow "to whatever the EU proposes" and that, therefore, she will "adjust" the tax figure voted in the Parliament.

She herself called it a "tax."

This is how she expressed it in the Antena 3 Public Mirror program, leaving the content of her party's bill in limbo.

For his part, the President of the Government,

, made a parenthesis this Thursday in his attacks on energy companies and banks and, on the contrary, was warm with the president of BBVA,

, and his leadership at the headquarters of the financial institution.

Sánchez agreed to inaugurate the second edition of the bank's Forum for Sustainability and presented himself as an "ally of the private sector" in the energy transition process.

"

for making sustainability the center of your priorities," he went on to say in contrast to his rhetoric of these months, describing the bank as a "dark power" that wants to bankrupt the Government.

Torres slipped that "regulation and public policies must provide the stability and confidence that investors need, together with adequate incentives."

Sánchez avoided mentioning the new taxes and agreed: «It is important to give legal stability to investors.

I humbly believe that's what we've done since 2018."

He did claim that "Ursula Von der Leyen has endorsed many of the Government's postulates."

Among them, the concept of increasing the fiscal pressure on the energy sector due to its extraordinary benefits.

That conceptual victory that the Government has achieved in Brussels served Montero to reproach the leader of the PP,

, who is "trapped" and has been forced "to change his position" on this tribute.

The irruption on the scene of the European Commission has forced the Government and the opposition to converge on the new tax.

The Government has to modify its tax approach on energy sales and

which is not contemplated by the European Commission and, in any case, never on income from bank commissions as approved on Tuesday in Parliament.

As for the PP, it now embraces the concept of taxing profits defended since 2020 by Podemos, but always in the way agreed by the EU, according to Feijóo, and

.

That is to say, with a finalist character and not for the State fund.

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• European Comission

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• Alberto Nunez Feijoo

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• Theresa Rivera

• Maria Jesus Montero

• Ursula von der Leyen

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