Anti-crisis plan set to survive government spying crisis
AS the parliament went to vote on the government’s anti-crisis plan decree yesterday (Thursday), the legislation was set to pass by a narrow majority.
Doubts lingered as to whether the scandal that the government allegedly spied on pro-independence leaders, journalists and lawyers using the Pegasus spyware would cost them the support they needed from these parties, who had supported its investiture.
Basque separatists EH-Bildu finally confirmed they would vote in favour of the measures designed to compensate for the effects of the war in Ukraine.
This was set to give the government 176 votes, an absolute majority thanks to the abstention of other parties, including the Canary Islands coalition.
EH-Bildu spokeswoman Mertxe Aizpurúa emphasised they had made the decision ‘out of responsibility’ and ‘for the people’ but ‘not for the government’.
She assured that pro-independence
Basques, Catalans and Galicians are ‘blocking policies that would curtail rights and freedoms, which the right and far-right would like to implement’.
“We are prioritising social and economic advances over party interests,” she said, but warned that ‘responsibility and respect must be mutual, and spying on those who enable this government to progress is not on’.
Nevertheless, Catalan separatist left-wingers Esquerra Republicana (ERC) announced they would vote against the motion, calling it a ‘first warning’ because they did not believe the government had cleared up who was responsible for the alleged spying.
In particular, they called for the resignation of defence minister Margarita Robles, who the day before had controversially asked, in relation to the spying, what a government was supposed to do when someone violates the Constitution, declares independence, cuts off public roads or maintains political contact with Russia.
Appealing to the chamber, presidency minister Félix Bolaños asked: “Which of you wants the price of petrol to go up for the citizens, that the electricity bill is more expensive tomorrow, that tenants can have their rent increased by 10% or that direct aid is taken away from transport drivers and livestock farmers?”
The decree is set to mobilise €16 billion, including the general 20 cent fuel discount, aid to goods drivers, extension of tax measures to limit the cost of energy, increasing the minimum subsistence income (IMV) by 15%, prohibiting objective dismissal of employees who are receiving direct aid, extending the ‘bono social’ electricity bill discount to 600,000 families, and prohibiting rents from being increased by more than 2%, amongst others.