The internal situation of the Government is so delicate this week —one of the worst the coalition has experienced— that its members are clinging to anything to try to change the divisive environment that is causing obvious wear and tear on the Executive.
The pension deal, which has been politically worked through for months and finally closed on Thursday, appears to have come at just the right time to try to reinvigorate the coalition.
That is why this Friday several members of the Government of the two sectors made an effort to use this good news to try to plug the hole through which the coalition is bleeding, which is the division by the law of the only yes is yes.
Both Félix Bolaños —Minister of the Presidency and great negotiator for Pedro Sánchez— and Yolanda Díaz —who has closed this agreement in person with José Luis Escrivá, the head of this reform— came out in a rush to defend the pact as a demonstration that the coalition will continue and it still has a lot of work ahead of it.
The Podemos sector, always harsher in its statements, this time also gave itself up to the praise of the agreement that dominated the discourse of the entire Government.
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Publicly, the Executive seems to be making an effort to put the situation back together, although in private there is a lot of concern because the discrepancies are far from being resolved.
There is another great agreement underway that could finish off this idea that the coalition is rearming, which is the housing law, but while the PSOE tries to launch the idea that the pact is very close, Podemos insists that it is far away and this weekend he has prepared an act with the motto "housing is a right" in which he will undoubtedly take the opportunity to pressure the PSOE to improve its latest offer in the negotiation, which implies going beyond the current rent increase ceiling of the 2% to 3% but only for 2024, to later establish a specific index that has to be prepared by the National Institute of Statistics.
“The coalition has just reached an agreement that guarantees pensions.
There are so many things that unite us, we have so many things to do, we cannot waste a second," said Félix Bolaños, determined before journalists to dispel the idea that the Government is on the brink of fracture.
It is the official message repeated by all the ministers, especially by Bolaños and María Jesús Montero, who are the two people commissioned by Sánchez to be more on top of all the negotiations and take care of the coalition.
In the PSOE, the debate on Tuesday, with harsh accusations by Podemos against the Socialists, has caused a lot of discomfort, and some leaders seemed at the beginning of the week wanting Sánchez to hit the table,
Yolanda Díaz, who voted no like all the other deputies of United We Can on Tuesday to the admission for processing of the PSOE bill to reform the law of only yes is yes, made it very clear in an interview in La Sexta that she It is committed to a different tone from that of Podemos and, above all, it believes that the only possible way out for the coalition is to seek agreements such as the one on pensions, which it claimed in first person.
“What people want is for us to do this, agreements that improve people's lives.
Sometimes by losing a little in the negotiation, society wins”, assured the second vice president.
Díaz insisted that Tuesday's split vote was a failure that should have been avoided with a deal.
"We should never have gotten there," he assured, after recalling that the pension negotiation has been very long and very difficult (Unidas Podemos flatly rejected the extension of the calculation period from 25 to 30 years that Escrivá proposed, and stood there until he managed to get the minister to offer that it be voluntary, and not mandatory, so that people can choose what is best for them and therefore they will not lose with the new calculation), but it has been worth it.
Ione Belarra, minister and general secretary of Podemos, also applauded the agreement, with the same message as Pablo Echenique, parliamentary spokesperson: “We are pleased to have reached an agreement that guarantees the sustainability of the public pension system by increasing income.
A redistributive measure so that those who have the most contribute more, ”she pointed out.
However, the Housing negotiation seems more complex due to the messages that Podemos is already launching.
ERC and Bildu, essential partners for this reform, are willing to negotiate what the PSOE has proposed, but first, logically, they want there to be an internal agreement in the coalition, and that is where the problem lies.
In any case, the coalition is preparing to try to sew up the seams with new agreements and decisions, but the wound of the only yes is yes continues to bleed and there is still the entire parliamentary process with amendments and finally a vote that, if there are no surprises, will return to see the partners divided and the socialists pushing ahead with the reform with the PP.
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