The Spanish Congress has rejected Pedro Sánchez's government's proposed expenditure ceiling and deficit objectives. The abstention of pro-independence Catalan parties ERC and PDeCAT, as El Nacional reported in advance, and of Podemos and supporting parties, have blocked the motion in a vote which exposed the weakness of the PSOE executive. The government only got 88 votes; the Congress has 350 deputies.
The Spanish government failed to pass its new budget framework, getting only votes in favour from its own 84 PSOE deputies and the 4 from EAJ; 173 votes against came from PP (134), Ciudadanos (32), UPN (2), EH Bildu (2), Forum Asturias (1), Coalición Canaria (1) and deputy Diego Cañamero from Unidos Podemos. Abstaining, other than Podemos, ERC and PDeCAT, were the four Valencian deputies of Compromís.
During her speech in the debate, treasury minister María Jesús Montero criticised the politics of "trenches" and "tantrums" which rejected the Spanish government's proposal and abstained on the deficit objectives. In her opinion, it comprises "gratuitous harm" towards the public and will perpetuate the "straight-jacket of cuts".
Montero said that the government will put together a budget for 2019 regardless and argued that citizens today have "more reasons to trust in this government", since they know that "it defends their interests with rigour, responsibility and stability".
The executive announced that it expects a deficit of 2.7% of GDP this year, 0.5 points over its objective agreed with Brussels. It also estimates a deficit of 1.8% of GDP for 2019, 0.5 points higher than Rajoy's government's prediction.
One month for another agreement
The law of budgetary stability, which regulates this agreement, says that, if the Congress doesn't approve the spending ceiling, the Spanish government has to send them a new agreement within a month.
However, it doesn't require an agreement on a ceiling to pass a budget. The Constitution stipulates that Sánchez will have to send a budget proposal to the Congress before 30th September.
Sánchez said yesterday that his government will present a budget for 2019 on time, either with the ceiling PSOE proposes, or the previous one from Mariano Rajoy's government.