Esquerra Republicana, EH Bildu and PNV have decided not to finally present amendments to the entirety of the 2023 general state budget project, as reported by the three formations. With this decision, Esquerra, Bildu and the PNV, who add 23 votes, facilitate the processing of the accounts that, however, do not have their final approval assured. But those who take the cat to the water in this budget negotiation are the Basque nationalists who have managed to wrest an agreement from the Government to renew the Basque Quota.
The Government thus adds up to 190 votes to reject the total amendments presented, which will be voted on next Friday, October 28, which for its part register 159 seats in favor.
The last to establish the position have been the Basque nationalists through their spokesman in Congress, Aitor Esteban, who at a press conference from the Sabin Etxea headquarters explained that they had reached an agreement to renew the Quota and has shown " moderately optimistic" with a view to final approval of the accounts.
"We have reached an agreement to renew the five-year law", Esteban announced to refer to the Quota law, which is the amount that the Basque Country pays annually to the State to finance the services that are centralized but from which the Basque citizens. As the Basque Country collects its own taxes (the Tax Agency does not do this, as is the case with the common system communities), it then has to pay its part of the centralized services (both those corresponding to the community and to local corporations).
Esquerra has justified his position to "give room and contribute to generating the conditions that allow the ongoing negotiations to be kept open, fully aware of the serious context of economic and social crisis to be addressed."
However, the Republicans warn that they are still "very far" from being able to approve the accounts and consider that "they have a wide margin for improvement" for which they urge the Government to accompany the budgets with "demanding structural measures, in terms of housing , change in the energy model, adequate regional and local financing and tax reforms to alleviate the social emergency".
The Republicans also demand compliance with investments in infrastructure in Catalonia after considering the execution figures "manifestly insufficient" and have urged the Executive to establish compliance mechanisms for budgeted investments in Catalonia.
Likewise, ERC sees it as essential that all the actors contribute to generating the necessary conditions of trust to keep the ongoing negotiations alive, with the aim of being able to reach agreements, in an allusion to the commitments made at the dialogue table with respect to which they call "dejudicialization" of the political conflict.
In this regard, the Minister of Territorial Policy and Government Spokesperson, Isabel Rodríguez, has responded to the ERC's request to reform the crime of sedition that they will be able to talk about this issue "later", at another time, but that now the "priority" is the protection of the middle and working classes in the General State Budgets and has reminded the Republicans that in the public accounts for 2023 there are "sufficient arguments" to support them.
For its part, EH Bildu has made the same decision not to amend the budgets in order to continue advancing in the negotiations. Despite this, like ERC, he warns that his votes are not guaranteed to carry out the budgets.
Bildu's will is to try to reach a "good agreement" that responds to the social and economic needs of Basque citizens. In addition, he reports that he has been developing in recent weeks and days the first negotiations with the Government regarding the budgets, which have intensified in recent hours, "always with rigor and discretion".
He explained that these negotiations are aimed not only at trying to overcome the parliamentary process of the amendments to the totality, but also at establishing sufficient bases to be able to continue with the budget negotiation until its final stage. The Government, he adds, must not forget that it is he who must win Bildu's votes in order to approve the budgets.
“At the moment, the conversations and negotiations that are taking place with the Government are advancing,” highlights Bildu, who assures that it is necessary to keep the negotiation dynamics open to try to reach an agreement on the first issues that the Commission has put on the table. Basque training. In addition, he adds that the Executive "should not take any scenario for granted" because "all options are still open today."
