The Government has already vetoed the processing of a fifth of the 5,400 registered amendments
MADRID, 13 Nov. (EUROPA PRESS) -
The project of the General State Budgets (PGE) of 2023 begins this Tuesday in the Congress of Deputies its decisive phase with the debate and voting of the partial amendments presented by the different parliamentary groups, first in commission and, the following week, before the full House.
In the next few days, PSOE and United We Can must ensure the necessary votes to avoid surprises in the Plenary, since losing the vote of a section there would imply the demolition of the entire Budget project and the return of the accounts to the Government.
A year ago, the Government counted for the first votes of the accounts with the support of the PNV and EH Bildu, while ERC, Junts and the Canary Coalition (CC) abstained. For their part, PP, Vox and Ciudadanos voted against.
In the Budget Commission, the groups that support the Executive have 17 of the 37 votes, so they only need two supports to have an absolute majority with which to guarantee that the project reaches the Plenary Session of Congress without any surprises.
At its meeting last Tuesday, the Commission's Bureau already agreed to exclude from processing a block of 50 amendments that the Chamber's lawyers pointed out as not being related to public accounts or the Government's economic policy, as well as others that affect to issues that must be regulated in an organic law.
These include three of the four partial amendments that United We Can, ERC and Bildu presented with the aim of regulating the price of rents and prohibiting evictions.
In the Budget Commission, the groups will have to debate and vote on the partial amendments presented by the groups to the public accounts. Of course, of the 5,461 registered, it remains to be seen how many end up being voted on finally.
And it is that the Government already sent a few days ago a first list to veto 984 amendments for assuming an increase in spending or a reduction in income in the new public accounts. By virtue of the powers granted to it by the Constitution, the Executive has the capacity to prevent the parliamentary processing of any initiative that alters budget policy, either because it involves more spending or less income.
In this first screening, the groups most affected by the vetoes are the PP, with 253 vetoed amendments, PDeCAT (138), Ciudadanos (122), Esquerra Republicana (112) and Más País (85). On whether or not to accept this veto of the Government, the Bureau of the Budget Commission, where PSOE and United We Can have a majority, must decide, which meets minutes before starting the budget debate.
From United We Can, three were vetoed signed only by the confederal group and another that it shared with ERC and Bildu and that was the only amendment that remained alive from the housing package registered by these three formations. In this case, it raised tax incentives for tenants who act with "social responsibility."
The massive veto of amendments caused discomfort among several parliamentary groups. In this way, the PP confirmed that it would appeal to the Congress Table for the more than 250 vetoes of the Executive. From the PP they consider that the Government "abuses" the power of veto, an "absolutely irregular" situation.
In the opinion of the Popular Group, the Government's vetoes did not attend so much to economic criteria, as to "ideological reasons" and their parliamentary "weakness", which causes the "fear of losing certain votes".
For its part, Ciudadanos has "deeply" regretted the vetoes, since these proposals would have been "very beneficial for the Spanish."
In the opinion of the liberal formation, PSOE and Podemos have passed "the roller" on their proposals to improve some accounts that "are irresponsible and dangerous, as well as lacking any ambition." Citizens have also stressed that the vetoes "steal" Parliament the possibility of debating these measures.
Apart from the partial amendments withdrawn from the agenda of the budget debate, the Congress lawyers sent a letter to the Budget Commission on Thursday in which they warned that some precepts of the 2023 General Budget Law, specifically five provisions, "could enter into contradiction" with the constitutional doctrine, understanding that the project exceeds the powers that should not be included in budgetary matters.
Some of the precepts referred to in the letter, to which Europa Press had access, refer to modifications in the General Subsidies Law, in matters of defense and security or in the Public Sector Contracts Law, among others.
The lawyers also referred to the entry into force of the budget law, according to the controversy that arose in 2022 about its application. Thus, the report submitted for consideration the possibility of including in the bill a new additional provision on the entry into force of the text, similar to the one that appeared in the 2021 Budget Law.
