The pulse between the economic vice president, Nadia Calviño, and Unidas Podemos these days reaches a new high point on account of the plan of 11,000 million in aid to companies, keys to avoid a wave of closures due to the collapse of sales.
The tension between the two blocks has caused the approval of the decree on aid that was scheduled for this Tuesday to be postponed late tonight.
Finally, it will be approved in an extraordinary Council of Ministers to be held next Friday, March 12, as confirmed by official sources.
Economy has raised the amount of non-reimbursable transfers to around 5,000 million;
We can claim a superior firepower of at least 8,000 million and changes in the management of the funds.
Calviño has a second source of tension with other socialist ministers on account of the participation of the autonomous communities in the management of the plan, according to sources from La Moncloa.
The divisions in the Executive ended up delaying that decree, which the Council of Ministers had planned to approve this Tuesday.
The rebound of the Spanish economy from the second semester, and especially in 2022, promises to be powerful after the collapse of 2020. But until the GDP starts there are four months, perhaps six, in which the survival of Tens of thousands of companies, which have seen their income disappear and their debts skyrocket as a result of the crisis associated with the COVID.
President Pedro Sánchez announced two weeks ago an aid plan of 11,000 million (one point of GDP) to avoid a wave of suspension of payments of which the Bank of Spain has been warning for months.
But no one has been able to rattle that cat for now: the divisions in the Government caused the delay of those measures, which the Council of Ministers had planned to approve this Tuesday.
La Moncloa presses with an eventual extraordinary council to pressure the Economy and Finance.
Vice President Calviño has been reluctant to approve direct non-reimbursable aid to companies, similar to those of Germany, France, Italy, the United Kingdom and even Portugal.
Part of the Council of Ministers considers that Spain is already late.
Calviño and the head of the Treasury, María Jesús Montero, continue to keep an eye on the deficit and the debt: they are in favor of undertaking only the essential stimuli.
Calviño has two problems within the Council of Ministers, according to sources consulted in four of the ministries involved in that plan and in La Moncloa.
On the one hand, the umpteenth brawl with Podemos, which makes him ugly that he has not negotiated with transparency.
And a second source of tension with other ministers in the economic area, who criticize core aspects of the measures that were originally going to be adopted this Tuesday in the Council of Ministers.
Podemos made public this Monday a proposal in which it considers that non-reimbursable aid to companies must be at least 8,000 million.
In this document, Podemos highlights several important differences in the design of the scheme: it is against the autonomies that manage this fund;
wants to condition aid to commitments to maintain employment, and is not in favor of focusing the funds on the most affected sectors.
The Podemos ministers did not participate in the debate of the delegate commission for economic affairs on Friday.
But Nacho Álvarez, economic head of the party, did complain on Thursday, in a meeting in which an outline of the plan was presented, that the Economy has not been transparent in the negotiation, knowing that the 31 deputies of Podemos may be essential to approve the decree.
A sector of the Government, beyond Podemos, is also discussing the design of that plan.
The 11,000 million in total will be channeled through three funds: a recapitalization fund for medium-sized companies through Cofides of about 1,000 million;
a second fund of about 5,000 million to restructure debts of the ICO, and a third (of about 5,000 million, although none of these figures is closed) with direct aid, aimed at companies with payment difficulties to suppliers.
That last bottom is the Gordian knot in which the problems are concentrated.
Economy and Finance were working late on Monday in that second source of tension to try to bring the decree to the Council of Ministers this Tuesday, in view of the fact that several members of the Executive consider that Spain is already late, and that the president Sánchez made an announcement two weeks ago that practically only disputes have transpired.
It was not possible: sources from La Moncloa confirmed that this decree will be delayed for at least a few days.
The sources consulted explain that the aid will be conditional on the payment of fixed expenses - rent included - and that it will be given to firms with income drops of more than 30%.
So far there is consensus.
From there, fog: Economy and Finance are in favor of focusing aid on the most affected sectors, while Podemos prefers to link them to maintaining jobs.
Calviño and Montero also want the autonomies to manage the aid, but La Moncloa admits that this point is the most controversial: there are companies that operate throughout the territory, problems related to market unity and doubts about the management that have been made by the autonomies of the direct aid that they have managed so far for about 2,000 million.
Four months waiting for support
More than four months have passed since one of the government's economic managers in a conversation with EL PAÍS advanced that "in two weeks" aid to SMEs would be approved. But the plan to inject money into the companies hardest hit by the coronavirus crisis has been delayed week by week. The Minister of Economy, Nadia Calviño, has been outlining the scheme since November.
