End of ultimatum and vote against. The secretary general of the Popular Party, Cuca Gamarra, announced at a press conference in the Congress of Deputies that the main opposition party will vote against a key economic reform on Thursday, that of the pension system. Gamarra has assured that the Government has not provided his party with the "technical justification" required to assess how the sustainability of the system is and that, therefore, it will vote negatively to the reform decree. In the last hours they have only given us three Excel sheets, "said Gamarra when the PP said that either it received enough information on Wednesday morning or it would give a "no".

The Government hopes to save the decree with its usual investiture partners, but the credibility of the reform is touched by Brussels and investors as it is not endorsed by the main opposition party and candidate to govern in the next legislature.

Gamarra has justified the vote against by the lack of information and dialogue of the Government and the negative analysis of the Independent Authority for Fiscal Responsibility (AIReF) that concludes that the reform presented by the Minister of Inclusion, José Luis Escrivá, generates an additional annual deficit of 1.1% of the Gross Domestic Product (about 14,000 million currently) without balancing the accounts. "Out of responsibility we can not support a reform that does not ensure the sustainability of the system and harms employment," justified the PP spokeswoman. It refers to the fact that the AIReF has also warned that focusing the adjustment of pensions on raising contributions to companies and workers can cause unemployment. "I do not know what the former president of the AIReF Escrivá would say to the current minister Escrivá," Gamarra said.

For his part, the socialist spokesman Patxi López, has criticized the attitude of the PP. "To go to Brussels to say that the reform did not like him did not need more information," he reproached in reference to the meetings of Alberto Núñez Feijóo with the president of the European Commission, Ursula Von der Leyen and, above all, the European Commissioner for Economic Affairs, Paolo Gentiloni. Lopez insisted that the government has "agreed" the reform with Brussels although the European Commission does not officially take it for granted.

CITIZENS, ALSO AGAINST

For its part, Ciudadanos will also vote against in coherence with having voted in the same direction in the first reform presented by Escrivá. "It is the robbery of the week, it is the non-reform," said parliamentary spokesman Edmundo Bal. "Even if they try to dress it up otherwise, the political failure of the reform is absolute and the credibility of the Ministry is totally in question. We have already warned the Minister that approving the reform in two parts, first the easy one and then the difficult one, would end badly. And so it has been. If he has closed an "agreement" it is only because Mr. Escrivá, in practice, has renounced to increase the calculation period. It has failed and intends to sell its inability as a success, "says its economic spokeswoman, María Muñoz to this newspaper.

"In the first pension reform, which we already labeled irresponsible and unfair, Mr. Escrivá swore and perjured us that there was no problem, that the accounts fit and that the Intergenerational Equity Mechanism (MEI) was sufficient to guarantee the sustainability of the system. Not even three months of application takes the MEI and we already have to load it and replace it with others. " "We did not have confidence in the previous reform and they have proved us right. Nor does what he presents to us today give us confidence. And time will prove us right sooner rather than later."

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  • PP
  • European Commission
  • Jose Luis Escriva
  • Citizenry
  • Ursula von der Leyen
  • Alberto Núñez Feijóo
  • Congress of Deputies
  • ERTE