Left-wing groups have increased the pressure this Monday to prevent the new decree – or decrees – that the Council of Ministers could approve this Tuesday, from leaving out the social shield measures. Last week, which included the revaluation of pensions and the prohibition of evictions for vulnerable people, among other initiatives. Both Alberto Núñez Feijóo’s party and Carles Puigdemont’s party have positioned themselves in favor of the former, but they justify, however, that the moratorium on evictions favors squatting – something that the Executive denies – and they warn that they will not support it. Sumar, a minority partner of the Executive, has opened up this Monday to the idea that the social shield and pensions go into separate decrees, but refuses to separate the agreements in time. That is, only approve pensions tomorrow and leave the prohibition on evictions for later.
The PNV, also with reluctance and which already reproached the Government for the way in which it had carried out the measures, warned this Monday that the Government must “rethink” the decree by extending the social shield to small owners with a single rental home, “leaving them exempt from assuming the burden of offering a housing alternative to people in vulnerable situations,” as claimed in a press release. “This responsibility cannot fall on these small owners, the Administration must help these people who have been left without resources, but without harming those who have a single additional home for rent,” defends the spokesperson for the Basque Group, Maribel Vaquero, in the statement. “Working without getting carried away by populism benefits the Basque citizens whom we represent,” concludes the deputy.
Leaders of Sumar, Podemos and ERC have put pressure on both the socialists and the right this Monday to recover the measure. “We want everything to go together,” insisted the spokesperson for Movimiento Sumar and Minister of Culture, Ernest Urtasun, who has shown himself open to negotiating changes to achieve the yes of other parties, with the condition that they do not affect the core of the decree. “Our hand is outstretched to see how we can adjust the measure, as long as the protection of families is not put into question,” he stated at a press conference about possible aid to homeowners, a card that the Government already played last year to attract Junts. The independentistas complain that these compensations.
Also from Sumar, the Minister of Social Rights, Pablo Bustinduy, asked this morning on TVE not to give in to the “blackmail” of the right and has assured that the formula of this new decree has not yet been finalized. “The way remains to be seen, we must dialogue and make it happen. But we must not give in to this blackmail that has attempted to sacrifice the most vulnerable people in the name of pensioners.” Both Bustinduy and Urtasun have publicly defended that “how matters less than what.” “What is to protect them and not also give in to this ideological operation that seeks to discriminate and say: support pensioners, yes; support the people who have the least, the poor, no,” the head of Social Rights has said.
“It is sad that we talk about choosing between pensions or the rest of the social shield. Who do we let fall? The answer is no one,” its head of Federal Organization, Eva García Sempere, defended along the same lines from Izquierda Unida. In a similar tone, Alberto Ibáñez, from Compromís, has stated in Congress that an attempt will be made to “make everything possible”, including the exemption from payment of the dana aid tax.
Sources from the coalition’s minority partner add that they are being intense these days and that on this issue, their objective is shared with that of the PSOE. The ERC spokesperson, Gabriel Rufián, revealed that contacts with the Government began last night and he has been categorical in his defense of the decree. “It won’t be for us. I think it’s a bad excuse to vote against a decree with the vast majority of good things, simply because you don’t like something. It’s like going without eating on a menu because you don’t like a dish,” he justified in statements to the media in the Lower House.
Podemos spokesperson Pablo Fernández has gone one step further, stating that if the PP, Vox and Junts do not want to support the anti-eviction measures, the Government can bring a new decree to the Council of Ministers every month. If you are not willing, he has suggested, the other option is to “pay vulnerable people rent” to avoid evictions. “It is up to the Government to find the formula that it believes is most effective so that the revaluation of pensions is approved. We will always be in favor and we would like them to increase more,” he said about the other fundamental measure that fell last Tuesday and affects nearly 10 million retirees.
