The scenario caused by the rise in prices, aggravated by the war in Ukraine, added to the blow of the left in Andalusia, has forced the Government to change its intentions. The photograph arranged and proclaimed by the Executive does not reflect the reality of the moment. Inflation continues, the crisis worsens and the lefts are going through a delicate moment in the legislature. All this cocktail motivates the decision to take until the end of the year the anti-crisis plan approved by the Council of Ministers this Saturday, when the initial intention had been to do it for three months.
There was a calendar, but no plan. The negotiations to close the text between PSOE and United We Can lasted until the last hour of this Friday. Disagreements, shock. The blockade reached the point that the decision of the conflicting measures and their impact, such as the aid check for families, remained in the hands of Pedro Sánchez, as confirmed by several government sources. That is, the aid check, for example, resulted in a political decision and not a technical one.
In La Moncloa, at the beginning of May, they denied “stagflation” and argued that inflation would begin to subside in the second half of the year. The passing of days, the permanent rise in prices and the entrenchment of the war disrupted that scenario. A few dates ago, Vice President Nadia Calviño modified her speech, recognizing a scenario of higher and more prolonged inflation over time.
All this led Sánchez, after his participation in the European Council, to announce that the anti-crisis plan would last until December 31. A scope that United We Can always demanded. “There will be a royal decree law,” the chief executive settled before the discrepancies between partners. In the Government, everyone assumed the need for an “ambitious” plan, but in the economic ministries of the PSOE there was reluctance with the measures promoted by the purples: aid check, discount on the transport bonus or tax on electricity companies.
One of the main points of friction is whether or not to establish an aid check for families, and if so, what income threshold to establish to grant it. The PSOE, reluctant to the measure, wanted to allocate it to the most vulnerable incomes. United We Can pressed for it to be granted to higher incomes, to the middle classes. Sánchez did not publicly get wet this Friday, but he did leave the door open by saying that his government works “to protect families that have become much more vulnerable due to the rise in the cost of living.”
The Ministry of Finance, which should be a key actor in this possible check, also had no knowledge at the close of this edition of whether the measure will finally be approved or not. They agree that it is President Sánchez who has taken direct responsibility for the decision and, although they point out the difficulties in defining the thresholds and conditions on time and even show some mistrust that it materializes, they did not rule out any scenery.
And about Sánchez’s words in reference to the “sectors that what they want is to maintain a status quo and privileges”, that is, to the electric and oil companies that have raised their income notably with the high prices, in the department of María Jesús Montero see it difficult to find any way to make them pay more right now and they maintain that today a tax will not be approved through the decree law.
This newspaper has already reported that this option would give companies a loophole to file a complaint. The tax can arrive in 2023, yes, but so that it affects the fiscal year of 2022, which is when that profit that the Government considers “excessive” has been produced. That when companies declare for the benefits of 2022 an additional tax is applied to them. Later, if the price situation normalizes, that surcharge could disappear. Or not.
Conforms to The Trust Project criteria
