Discomfort in Rajoy's economic team due to Casado's frontal rejection of the labor reform

The leader of the PP, Pablo Casado;

the spokesperson for the Popular Group in Congress, Cuca Gamarra;

and the former minister and deputy of the PP Ana Pastor, along with other members of the popular leadership in the Congress of Deputies, on December 28, 2021. Eduardo Parra (Europa Press)

The year 2022 begins for Pablo Casado with a new wave of tensions due to his frontal rejection of the labor reform. The position of the leader of the PP in this matter is paradigmatic of how difficult it will be in the year that any pact initiative that wants to involve the PP begins. The popular ones are not for the work of giving oxygen to Pedro Sánchez, and that is where Casado's decision to oppose an initiative that has been agreed with the employer is framed, which they criticize as insufficient the members of the Executive and support the more moderate sectors of the right, including prominent members of the last government of Mariano Rajoy. In the economic team of the former popular president there is discomfort over the opposition of the PP to a reform that they see "balanced" and that "consolidates the nuclear aspects of the 2012 reform of the PP."

The analysis of relevant members of Rajoy's Cabinet from the economic area is that the reform of the left-wing coalition Executive is not problematic because it respects the fundamental elements of the one they carried out a decade ago, and also consolidates it in those aspects - such as the lowering of the cost of dismissal - because if it is not being modified now, by some parties that insisted on repealing it now, it will never be done. "That it has been reached through an agreement with businessmen, also with its contradictions, implies that a fairly balanced reform position has been reached for the times that run," defends a former popular minister. This member of the Rajoy Cabinet also highlights the role of the Minister of Employment who led the 2012 reform, Fátima Báñez,who works at the CEOE —chairs the employer's foundation— and is a close collaborator of Antonio Garamendi, leader of the entrepreneurs, who has supported the pact. "Báñez is the guarantee of that agreement, because she would never have accepted a change that would go against the reform of 12. Isn't she the person to trust in this matter? If it is not, I no longer know ", laments this former minister, who also complains that" time has passed and the PP does not seem to have an economic alternative. "who also complains that "time has passed and the PP does not seem to have an economic alternative."who also complains that "time has passed and the PP does not seem to have an economic alternative."

The Marianists are satisfied that the initiative does not repeal relevant elements of that of 2012, and they claim that “political victory”

Mariano Rajoy himself has been explicit in publicly defending that "the labor reform has been left as it was," as he maintained in an interview on

José Luis Ayllón, who was chief of staff of the former popular president, believes that that is why Pablo Casado's PP “rushed to place itself against the reform, because it has taken away the ability to maneuver and is a slave to that position”, and in instead of criticizing the content "should have attacked the outright lie that it was going to be repealed." "The CEOE has done well, the agreement is good from an economic and political point of view," defends Ayllón, who, however, does not believe that the PP should now support it, because Sánchez did not seek his support from the beginning. “If the Government had wanted to approve the labor reform with the PP, it would have to have talked about it before. If Sánchez doesn't have partners to get her out, let him go, but I won't save him from that ”.

Casado is determined to resist the pressures, which also come from the moderate barons and even from FAES, and in Genoa they assure that he will not move from the no.

The PP complains that the Government has not contacted the formation before if it wanted an agreement, and refuses to "wash the face of Sánchez and Díaz" and become "the government's crutch."

"If Casado has shown something is that if he is clear and set the course, he does not change it," they settle in their team, where they prepare to try to resist the new storm surge.