• The proposal.We can no longer veto Citizens if the Budgets are agreed before in the Government
  • The opposition The PP reaffirms that it will not negotiate the Budgets while Podemos remains in the Government
  • Ciudadanos.Inés Arrimadas: "Budgets have to come out and the less happy Iglesias is, the better for Spain"

The purpose of Unidos Podemos to reach a specific pact on the General State Budgets of 2021 within the coalition Government, which will then serve as the basis for negotiating with the rest of the political forces, will entail a delay in its presentation, whose date at this time it's already very confusing.

The objective of the Ministry of Finance was to approve them and send them to Congress when appropriate, that is, at the end of September, so that after the three months that require processing they have the approval of the Cortes before the end of the year.

This calendar is in the air because the Executive does not even have a date to send the spending ceiling to the Lower House, which is the first step in preparing the Budgets, initially planned for after the summer.

The Executive did not want to refine while waiting for the European agreement on reconstruction funds, intended to alleviate the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, which, after tough negotiations, went ahead in July. But although there was finally a consensus and Spain will receive the manna from the EU, the Treasury still has no date to approve the new spending ceiling.

Montero's "task"

Internally, the first movements have been made to design the accounts for 2021. In July, the order that begins the process was approved and the Minister of Finance, María Jesús Montero, is holding talks with all the ministries. "Montero is launched doing her homework," they confirm from the Government.

In fact, the conversations with the ministries led by Podemos were not going bad. But the purple formation now requires a global negotiation, more in depth, between the two parties that form the coalition. A concrete agreement on the Budgets and not Montero's multilateral talks with the rest of the Executive ministers.

This change in the procedure, with which Pablo Iglesias' party tries not to be politically sidelined and to mark ground in the face of Moncloa's approach to Ciudadanos, represents a new handicap that removes the possibility that the Budgets will be at the end of September.

From Podemos it is assured that, in the current state, "it does not look like" that date can be met. "We are still with the prolegomena, there is a lot of ink missing", they point out. Treasury sources reiterate that the idea is to present it "in a timely manner", but point out that "nothing happens if it is presented a few weeks later."

Fly the 'Matins'

Now an internal consensus has to be reached which will begin work on Monday. Just a week ago, with the Moncloa teams recently incorporated from the holidays, there were no matins , the weekly strategy meeting to which Sánchez summons Carmen Calvo, José Luis Ábalos, Adriana Lastra, Iván Redondo, Félix Bolaños , María Jesús Montero and Miguel Ángel Oliver , and on the part of Podemos, Pablo Iglesias, Irene Montero, Pablo Echenique and Juanma del Olmo , although the president did meet with his second vice president.

There, according to the sources consulted, Iglesias raised the first doubts about how the Budget project should be written. This Monday there will be matins and also a new meeting between Sánchez and Iglesias to face the problem.

It is a priority issue, not only because it affects the cohesion of the Executive in a fundamental matter, but because Moncloa has designed a start of the course focused on the request for political and institutional unity and who must first set an example is the Government.

Once an internal agreement is reached, Podemos does not intend to veto anyone. They would work to bring ERC closer to the agreement and the PSOE to obtain the support of Cs, which, with the turnaround given by Inés Arrimadas and the improvement of dialogue with the Government, is taken for granted. But even the moves each one makes must be part of the pact.

Montero "will talk to everyone"

During the negotiations of the extensions of the state of alarm the image that was offered is that all the weight of the conversations fell on the PSOE. The purple formation rejects that they did not get involved and affirms that this procedure was agreed beforehand.

The president and Iglesias agreed that Carmen Calvo be the executive's interlocutor, and they explain that they helped when they demanded her intervention. The process of seeking votes for next year's accounts will be similar.

In the Treasury, waiting for the positions within the Executive itself to be clarified, the alleged initial veto of Podemos to Ciudadanos has not made a dent, which little by little has been nuanced.

From the Ministry they insist that Montero "will talk to everyone" to get the Budgets with the maximum possible votes. And that is the official position, despite the ups and downs of the purples and the doubts about what ERC will do, turned into a hypothetical electoral race, of an election that Quim Torra has announced but has not called and that keeps the independentistas away from Sánchez.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

Know more

  • We can
  • Citizens
  • PSOE
  • Maria Jesus Montero
  • Pablo Iglesias
  • ERC
  • Carmen Calvo
  • State's general budgets
  • United we can
  • Inés Arrimadas
  • Spain

PoliticsWe can demand to monitor the dialogue with Citizens and threaten Pedro Sánchez

Politics The PSOE believes that Podemos uses the King to cover up its accounting irregularities

Politics We can no longer veto Citizens if the Budgets are agreed before in the Government

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