The PP and Vox agree in the analysis that 2023 will be a year of economic crisis, which facilitates an exceptional situation in politics: the two parties, which will compete to seduce the same voters in the May elections, are willing to negotiate this fall some new budgets for next year.
"Not approving them would be irresponsible," says a source from the highest rank in the far-right formation.
That position, transmitted this Tuesday by the Vox spokeswoman, Rocío Monasterio, to the regional president, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, has diluted the doubts with which some of the conservative leader's trusted men faced the negotiation of the project.
"As the end of the legislature and the elections are near, the scenario changes," acknowledged a popular source before Ayuso met on Tuesday with all the opposition spokesmen.
"That's why we don't know if approving the Budgets will be viable," he added, recalling that the PP does not have an absolute majority, and that it needs the extreme right to carry out its proposals.
"In 2021, when the current budgets were designed, they became very flexible, in case they had to be extended for 2023," he detailed.
More information
Ayuso has someone to write to him: 21 complaints and offers by letter from Lobato, the leader of the PSOE in Madrid
However, Ayuso's appointment with the Monastery at the Royal Post Office, where Mónica García (Más Madrid), Juan Lobato (PSOE) and Carolina Alonso (Unidas Podemos) have also attended this Tuesday afternoon, has cleared up at a stroke All those fears and uncertainties.
"We want to seek resources for the middle and lower classes, which are the ones that are going to suffer the most from the policies of this [Pedro Sánchez] government, which always chooses the wrong path," Monasterio explained at a subsequent press conference.
"That means a reduction in ineffective public spending and taxes," he continued, demanding a reduction in personal income tax, a shock plan to help the self-employed, eliminate 70 million in institutional advertising, the 23 million for the green arch project, or reduce spending on rent and counseling.
"If they go along that line, Vox will approve the budgets," he has promised.
Coincidence in diagnosis
A commitment that Enrique Ossorio, number two of the regional government, has celebrated almost immediately.
"We have agreed on the diagnosis of many things", has recognized the regional vice president.
“We are concerned about the price of energy, the increase in mortgages, inflation...”, he continued.
“[Monasterio] has given us something that we share: that we take care of the self-employed.
He has reminded us of his compensation plan and we are going to analyze it, because it may be necessary, ”he added.
“And we have talked about the willingness to negotiate the Budgets with the Vox group.”
It is not a minor issue.
Since he came to power for the first time, in 2019, Ayuso has only managed to approve the public accounts on one occasion: it was in 2021, and thanks to Vox, the only possible partner he has in the regional Assembly.
This project, which is the current one, may become outdated if it is not replaced by a new one: it was designed in 2021 and, if extended, it would have to serve as a response to the acute crisis that PP and Vox predict in 2023.
With the aim of replacing the current accounts with updated ones, the ministries have already started working before the summer on the preparation of their proposals.
These documents have already reached the Ministry of Economy and Finance, led by Javier Fernández-Lasquetty, in charge of harmonizing all the wishes and requests of his government colleagues in a coordinated plan.
And not only those: it will also have to leave a budget gap for the demands that Vox can make, which the PP is also courting to approve before the elections the 15 legal projects that are still pending in the regional Chamber.
Isabel Díaz Ayuso, receiving Mónica García (More Madrid). KIKE FOR (EL PAÍS)
Commitments with Más Madrid
From the appointment that Ayuso has subsequently had with Mónica García, the leader of Más Madrid, more specific agreements have emerged.
The leader of the Executive has shown herself willing to expand the project that she had already announced to put solar panels in the subway depots and thus reduce the underground electricity bill, which threatens its economic stability.
She also, to increase aid to renew appliances and replace old ones with more efficient ones before a winter that will be marked by energy prices.
"We hope that these proposals go ahead because of the commitment with which we have closed this meeting," said García, who has also spoken with Ayuso about the need for parliamentary debates to abandon the harsh tone that has characterized them, to focus on the policy and proposals.
Finally, Ossorio, also present at that meeting with the representatives of Más Madrid, has advanced that the Government is open to withdrawing the possibility of paying by card from the regulation that regulates bookmakers, criticized by neighborhood associations and experts.
“If it can affect gambling addiction, we are not going to go in that direction”, warned the
number two
of the regional Executive about the proposal submitted to public consultation by the Ministry of the Presidency.
“The use of credit and debit cards has increased, there is a before and after the pandemic, but in terms of gambling we will analyze if it affects gambling, because if it does we would not go in that direction”, he has abounded.
For his part, Lobato, from the PSOE, has demanded that the regional government adopt energy saving measures (for example, investing in the coming months what it plans to invest in energy efficiency in public buildings in the coming years);
and that it solves the problem caused by Metro line 7B in San Fernando de Henares, where hundreds of people have had to leave their homes due to movement on the ground caused by the infrastructure.
“There has to be a response to alleviate the suffering of all these families”, said the leader of the Socialists about all those neighbors who have seen their homes demolished while line 7B was closed for the ninth time in just 15 years as consequence of the problems generated by its construction.
Finally, with Podemos there has been a harsh clash that has portrayed the distance that separates the left-wing party from the PP.
"It has been a failed meeting, which seeks to wash his image [that of Ayuso], but not listen to the opposition or seek any type of agreement," said spokeswoman Carolina Alonso.
“He has not known or wanted to tell us if the primary care emergencies are going to open.
It's a joke," she added.
"Neither has he promised to combat waiting lists, nor has he accepted free public transport until December 31, or has he explained whether he is going to build the promised educational centers for this course," she detailed.
"He hasn't committed to anything at all."
Subscribe here
to our daily newsletter about Madrid.