If it is costing the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, blood, sweat and tears to obtain the investiture, it is not going to be any easier for him to form a government. The reason is that there are too many to share the loot. Although public administrations go a long way, everything has a limit. Above all, when from Europe they are demanding austerity from us.
The president will probably have his hands and feet tied to develop a coherent economic policy in the next legislature. Growth has stagnated in the third quarter and will probably do the same in the fourth. Tax revenue is collapsing and inflation remains uncontrolled. A perfect storm to prevent an expansive policy like the one demanded by its partners in the so-called “investiture bloc.”
Too much rice for so little chicken. There are not enough public positions to distribute to make everyone happy. The bank of favors has been abused and now the bills must be paid. Once meritocracy has been discarded as the most effective formula for governing, politics has become the authentic social elevator. This is especially true in the area of the left, since on the right those who are more or less are already employed and with a good salary.
Sánchez cannot forget that Sumar is not a party, but rather the grouping of twelve organizations and that each one claims their piece. It is not only Podemos, which is going to demand ministers and high officials to have power, but the rest will also do the same, as is logical. As in the popular saying, there are no favors in the jungle. According to the government pact between the PSOE and Sumar, it is not just about the reduction of working hours or the increase in the SMI, but an additional string of commitments that are easier to put on paper than to put into practice.
The same happens with the rest of the support given by the nationalists. The transfer of commuter trains, Rodalies, is only the tip of the iceberg. The announcement has cost us a strike by all the Renfe unions on the December long weekend, and they are friends. But the difficult thing will be when the thorny issue of regional financing and the settlement of the debt that certain autonomies maintain with the State is addressed. It will be a very high bill if we want to please everyone and maintain the principle of proportionality required by the Constitution.
But we are talking only about the agreement reached with ERC. To this we must add the fish that Junts wants to put in the basket. Without forgetting that the president of the PNV, Iñigo Urkullu, has already reminded Sánchez that he is waiting for his turn to talk about the breach of the Statute of Autonomy and the pending grievances. The Basques do not get nervous, but this does not mean at all that they give up taking the best slice as they have always done.
It is not the first time this happens. When José María Aznar won the elections in 1996 with a simple majority, he had to pull from public companies, senior officials and general budgets to get the support of the nationalists of the PNV, the Canary Coalition and, above all, CiU. It was an important but limited distribution of the loot, since at the end of the day only three parties had to be satisfied. Although to be honest, the real distribution occurred with the fat cats and the privatizations, in which he placed his friends, traveling companions and financiers, to do the great business that was.
If privatizations were the currency to pay favors in the Aznar government, now they will be reprivatisations. The Government wants to buy controlling stakes to put its people and thus ensure effective control of them.
