“What cannot be, cannot be, and is also impossible.” This phrase from the bullfighter Rafael Guerra, Guerrita, can be applied to the new Minister of Economy Carlos Body. His fundamental mission is to convince his European partners that it is not true that the Spanish Government has no intention of complying with the new fiscal rules agreed upon by his predecessor Nadia Calviño. At the same time, he has to convince his Cabinet colleagues that it is very important to reduce the deficit and public debt agreed with Brussels. That is, he has the difficult task of blowing and absorbing at the same time.
It is logical that the so-called frugal countries, such as Denmark, Sweden, Australia, Finland and the Netherlands, are skeptical of the budgetary rigor of the Mediterranean countries in general and Spain in particular. It is no wonder, because none of the southern countries has been enthusiastic about maintaining public spending discipline. On the contrary, they have always rejected economic orthodoxy, which advises achieving surpluses when the cycle is expansive in order to be able to use the surpluses in lean years.
Without going any further, the current first vice president, María Jesús Montero, cried out because the Junta de Andalucía had closed with a surplus: “It means keeping citizens' money without spending it.” She even reproached a journalist who was interested in an unclear budget item: “Chiqui, it's 1.2 billion, that's not enough.” As a good socialist, she thinks that the good thing, the progressive thing, is to spend the more the better. At the end of the day, the deficit becomes a perpetual public debt, the kind that never has to be paid.
The problem is that now, without Calviño, she is the one in charge of the Spanish economy. The one who has full confidence in President Sánchez and, above all, the one who has the key to income and expenses. She is the queen of the state safe. The conservative opposition sees a lot of danger in him.
In any case, it is she, María Jesus Montero, who is in charge of disciplining the other vice president, Yolanda Díaz, who until now has distinguished herself by exceeding the demands of the unions. Yes CC.OO. and UGT ask for seven, she encourages them to ask for ten. She has populist blood, her DNA is that of a union member born to save the working class and the most disadvantaged. And she is fully convinced that this is achieved with more public spending that someone will pay for and if it is not paid, then better. Nothing to do, as we have seen with the increase in the minimum wage, with a Minister of Labor whose role is mediation between workers and employers.
And what about the partners of the progressive coalition government? There is no country project and each one does their own thing. Every time something has to be voted on, more compensation is requested, as we have seen with Junts with the omnibus decree. And this is just the beginning. ERC, PNV, Bildu and Sumar are being reserved for the general budgets of the State. Once the blackmail of the Catalan independentists has been accepted, the Ministry of Finance can become the House of Tócame Roque. Even the Canary Coalition is going to demand that the island of San Borondón be handed over to them, and if it is not possible, that they be compensated with a substantial economic compensation.
Minister Corps is going to have to deal with all this. He will preside over the Delegate Commission for Economic Affairs, which is the authentic economic government of the country. The oven where all decisions and all laws are baked. But, as an admiral told me, “to think that a private soldier is going to command the generals, in this case the female generals, is hilarious.” Can anyone believe that Carlos Cuerpo is going to say what the three vice presidents have to do: María Jesús Montero, Yolanda Díaz and Teresa Ribera...? And he must also deal with the Minister of Transport, Óscar Puente, another strong character in the Government. Come on, I won't rent you the profit.
