MADRID. The former president of Spain, José María Aznar warns about the future of the country, after the Congress forcefully approve two decrees proposed by the coalition government of Pedro Sánchez.
In a message on his Instagram social network account, he states that Spain It has “too important a history and too promising a future to tremble in the hands of adventurers who neither know history nor imagine the future.”
Aznar’s message generates expectations in the Spanish political sphere. Some analysts interpret his words as an attempt to mobilize the Spanish right. Others believe he is simply expressing concern for the country’s future.
Aznar’s statement comes in a context of great political tension in Spain. Precisely, Sánchez’s coalition government is negotiating to advance three proposed decrees in parliament: anti-crisis, omnibus and unemployment benefits.
Sánchez’s decrees
The anti-crisis Decree is part of the package approved in 2023, which supposedly includes measures such as the reduction of VAT, electricity and gas, the fuel bonus, the increase in the Minimum Living Income and the increase in the Minimum Interprofessional Wage.
While the Omnibus Decree includes a series of measures related to the receipt of European funds, such as the digitalization of justice, the streamlining of administrative procedures and the fight against corruption.
The Decree on unemployment benefits seeks to modify the 2021 labor reform, increasing the duration of the subsidy for workers with greater family responsibilities and reducing the contribution period necessary to access the benefit.
Of these three decrees, only two were validated by the Congress of Deputies this Wednesday, January 10, 2024: the anti-crisis decree and the omnibus decree. The project on unemployment benefits was rejected by Podemos, which is a serious blow to the Sánchez government.
These decrees were crucial for the stability of the government, since their rejection would have meant a parliamentary defeat for Sánchez. However, the Spanish government should not feel very triumphant, it should consider and analyze that the two decrees were approved by just one vote ahead.
From now on, the Spanish government coalition must secure votes for any proposal it submits for consideration in parliament, because support is very vulnerable, and the tendency could be towards failure.
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Source: Instagram social network account of the former president of Spain José María Aznar, “20 Minutes, France 24, El Economista.es
