• PP Feijóo will support Sánchez's plan to reduce the impact of the war if he lowers taxes

  • Energy crisis Sánchez announces a bonus of 20 cents in gasoline to all users

The shock plan to deal with the economic consequences of the war in Ukraine will be validated by Congress despite the fact that practically all parliamentary forces consider it "insufficient" and are in favor of its being processed as a bill to be able to amend it and introduce in it some of its proposals.

The groups in the Chamber are again divided into two ideological camps.

On the one hand, the usual allied left-wing formations of the Executive who on this occasion demand a clear intervention in the energy market and the imposition of taxes on the large companies, mainly oil and electricity companies, on banks and the "rich" and, on the other, the right-wing forces that exercise the opposition and that demand a deflation of the personal income tax rate and general reductions in taxes.

Both sides do agree, however, that the measures included in the royal decree approved by the Council of Ministers today are late and could have been approved weeks ago without having to wait for the European Council.

In fact, they emphasize that Brussels only depends on the possibility of establishing in Spain and Portugal a cap on the price of a megawatt to separate it from the price of gas.

A measure that in any case will take several weeks to see the light.

Again, a good part of the parliamentary forces regret having learned about the content of the decree through the media and not having been able to even minimally negotiate its content.

That is why practically all the groups are in favor of requesting its processing as a bill despite being aware that the Government with its majority in the Congress Table can, as the spokesman for More Country, Íñigo Errejón, graphically explains, " give yourself mus" week after week until the decree lapses, especially considering that its useful life is rated at only three months at the moment.

The PSOE claims to be "open" to this request, although it considers that it would be of little use considering the urgency and time frame of the planned measures.

Taking into account that the Government has 30 days with the measures in force before submitting their validation to the Chamber, the parliamentary spokesman Héctor Gómez believes that "there is time to assess" the need or not to process it as a bill .

"Why only until June 30?"

Among the left-wing formations, Más País, Bildu, ERC or Compromís insist that the bonus of 20 cents per liter of fuel, to be covered three-quarters by the State and only one-fourth by the oil companies, the distribution of the burden should be "just the opposite" in order to avoid that in the end the bill for the subsidy is paid for with public money, that is, with the taxes of the very citizens whom it is intended to benefit.

Likewise, this block of groups considers it insufficient that the measures have been planned for only three months.

"Why only until June 30?" asks the ERC spokesman, Gabriel Rufián, for whom, in addition to raising the minimum vital income by 15% during this period, minimum pensions should also be increased.

These formations also lack truly structural measures to reform the energy market and put an end to the marginal price fixing system.

From the right, they prefer to be "cautious" while waiting to study in detail the small print of the decree but from the outset they insist that "measures are lacking" that for them are essential and that, they remember, were part of the commitment signed by Sánchez with the regional president at the Conference of Presidents of La Palma.

They thus refer to tax cuts -lowering the VAT on fuel and gas from 21% to 4% and eliminating the special tax on hydrocarbons-, a proposal that is eluded in the rule approved by the Council of Ministers.

PP and Ciudadanos also demand the deflation of personal income tax and the oranges add to the list of demands the extension of the life of nuclear power plants.

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  • personal income tax

  • Minister council

  • More Country

  • citizens

  • Gabriel Rufian

  • CKD

  • compromise

  • Bildu

  • PSOE

  • Portugal

  • Ukraine

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