The Minister of Finance, María Jesús Montero, upon arrival at the debate, this Thursday. FERNANDO VILLAR (EFE)
The Congress has approved this Thursday the modification of the concert and the Basque quota and the Navarra agreement, by rejecting the plenary session both amendments to the entirety presented by Ciudadanos and Vox.
The lower house has ratified the three bills in question with the majority of groups in favor, with which it has added 273
yeses
, 60
noes
and six abstentions.
The renewal of the financing systems has been undertaken to incorporate the new taxes on plastic, fluorinated gases from the greenhouse effect and taxes on banks, energy companies and large fortunes.
Representatives of the Basque and Navarrese governments have followed the vote from the Hemicycle rostrum.
The updating of the quota calculation methodology has also been introduced until 2026.
“The groups that have presented an amendment to the whole state that today's debate is nothing more than deepening the privileges of one territory over another and increasing inequalities among Spaniards.
Quite the opposite.
It is about making respect for the common agreement that the Magna Carta implies effective”, the Minister of Finance, María Jesús Montero, started the session from the lectern.
It was the prologue to the confrontation that the spokespersons for CS and Vox have staged over whether the regional regulations fit within the framework of the Constitution.
The relevance of applying the new taxes has been left out of the debate, except in the case of Gabriel Elorriaga, a deputy for the PP, who has censured the government's fiscal policy.
"Redistribution fails," Elorriaga has criticized about the new taxes,
Appealing to the main argument of Ciudadanos, which advocates eliminating the "privileges" between the territories, Inés Arrimadas has defended with a heated speech the amendment presented by her group, with which they have denounced the "opacity" in the processing of laws, the Government having "agreed" on the content with the Basque Executive "before" its debate in Parliament.
"It doesn't matter who governs Spain, the PNV always wins," snapped the CS parliamentary spokesperson.
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The Basque Country will manage the new tax on the rich after an agreement reached at the end of last December, with which La Moncloa resolved that the new taxes on banking and energy will not be transferred, but in exchange, the Basque Country will receive around 400 million for the two years in which they are in force.
Both decisions were reached within the Mixed Commission of the Economic Agreement between representatives of the Basque Country and the Ministry of Finance, and respond to the design of the financing system of the community.
“It has been negotiated behind closed doors under the blackmail of the PNV.
You are approving a new scam against the whole of the Spanish.
None of the deputies will be able to explain where the millions come from, because they cannot justify them”, Arrimadas has sentenced.
Some attacks that Montero had previously anticipated.
"To deny the forality is to deny the Constitution and, above all, it is to not understand Spain, the Basque Country or Navarra," said the Minister of Finance, who has also charged the PP bench for putting up "a red carpet" to the motion of no confidence that Vox will present next Monday, and announced this Wednesday, with Ramón Tamames as a candidate.
The president of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, met with the former leader of the PCE before he made a decision on the offer of the ultra group, whose initiative is based on fighting against the "illegitimate" government of Pedro Sánchez, as it has once again remember the deputy of Vox Inés Cañizares, who has defended her amendment to the entirety from the podium.
"What Vox proposes is a State at the service of the unity of Spain,
in which there are no differences between regions, strengthen ties between Spaniards, and guarantee equality between them”, stated Cañizares.
The party is against the state of the autonomies recognized in the Constitution.
The #Plenary has approved the modifications to the Economic Agreement of #Navarra, the Economic Agreement of the #Basque Country and the Basque quota, which it sends to the @Senadoesp.
📑 Press release: https://t.co/Zwmea0GPTq pic.twitter.com/Y1muRDzi2u
– Congress (@Congreso_Es) February 23, 2023
One of the most intense interventions was that of the Compromís spokesperson, Joan Baldoví.
The Valencian deputy has refused to vote in favor of the amendments presented —because of their motivation and the "demagogy" of Vox and Ciudadanos, he said—, but he has taken the opportunity to censure PSOE and PP for not undertaking the modification of the regional financing system that, in his opinion, harms the Valencian Community.
"It is a shame.
There are territories that are not respected”, Baldoví stressed.
After the vote in Congress, the Minister of Economy and Finance of the Basque Government, Pedro Azpiazu, has expressed his satisfaction from the lower house that the regulations have been endorsed with 80% of the support of the Chamber, in what is "a recognition and a respect for the concert and the quota” against the “electoral” use of the Vox and Ciudadanos amendments.