The PP reaffirms its vote against the labor reform | Spain

The PP ditch, for the moment, its position before the validation or not in Congress of the labor reform, approved by the Government in coalition with unions and employers. The popular spokesman in the Senate, Javier Maroto, insisted this Monday that his parliamentary group will reject the decree law. “If the Popular Party is consistent and defends the proposal it approved in 2012, and heeds everything that the left has said in this decade – that it wants to end that reform, destroy it, repeal it completely or partially -, then when that reform arrives now, which is today, the Popular Party is going to vote against it ”, explained Maroto during a pre-campaign event in Segovia for the Castilla y León elections. Congress has several weeks to validate Royal Decree-Law 32/2021, of December 28, by an absolute majority.

The refusal of the popular is added to that of the main partners of the Government, ERC and EH Bildu, who refuse to support the text with the current wording, understanding that changes agreed to in the inauguration of President Pedro Sánchez are left out. The Executive has a month to negotiate the yeses, and since Monday the work has intensified to bring positions closer to its partners, without neglecting the opposition. Just a few hours before Maroto’s appearance, the Minister of Finance and Public Function, María Jesús Montero, had asked the PP to support the text published in the BOE on December 30. “It would be up to the PP to respect a social dialogue agreement, because it is the first time in the history of our country that a labor reform, practically in its entirety, is the result of the agreement between unions and employers,” Montero stressed in Seville, where has attended this Monday the investiture of the new mayor, Antonio Muñoz, who takes over from the secretary general of the Andalusian PSOE, Juan Espadas, after his appointment as senator, informs Eva Saiz.

The popular ones insist on giving the negative for an answer. “[Votar en contra] it is the same as voting for a policy that has been deemed effective. We defend the labor reform that has existed in this country for ten years and that has created millions of jobs, ”Maroto reiterated. A position that has not been unanimous from the beginning within the party, with nuances between no and abstention, since the text enjoys the endorsement of businessmen. Relevant leaders of the PP and members of its Executive have asked Pablo Casado, in public and in private, “caution” and some time to thoroughly analyze the decree before setting a final vote against. The frontal rejection of the leader of the PP has also run into criticism from the president of the employer’s association, Antonio Garamendi, who has stated that he would “like” popular training to teach him his project.

Despite the reluctance of ERC and EH Bildu, who call the reform insufficient, to which are added those of PNV, Más País and Compromís and BNG, the Government is reluctant to change a single point of the pact endorsed by social agents. And in this sense, Montero has reaffirmed in Seville: “The fact that the representation of workers and employers has agreed on a text like the one that is being debated by the Congress of Deputies, it would be worth studying it carefully and validating it without incorporating no added question, since this document is the fruit of debate and harmony between the interests at stake ”. The rejection of the executive’s parliamentary partners would lead the PP deputies and the nationalist parliamentarians to vote all together. The popular ones, in addition, against an agreement that includes the employer’s association. A castling criticized by the Second Vice President and Minister of Labor, Yolanda Díaz, in an interview published this Sunday in EL PAÍS. “I think it is very difficult to say no to this rule. Whoever makes it fail will have to explain to the workers of Cádiz or those who are not negotiating their agreement why the ultra-activity that the previous rule prefers has ended. I understand the policy perfectly and we will talk. We will work until the end ”.

The general coordinator of EH Bildu, Arnaldo Otegi, has responded this Monday in an article published in the newspaper Public that his party will not endorse the labor reform if collective bargaining is not “destabilized” through the incorporation of amendments. Leader nationalist He has also invited the Executive to evaluate whether the support of the CEOE is worth more than that of “the partners who have been supporting the Government.”

Ciudadanos could tip the balance of “yes” to reform. This weekend, his spokesman in Congress, Edmundo Bal, opened the door to support the text in the lower house, albeit with conditions: “It is a joy that an agreement has been reached, we have always demanded that any labor reform be It will be carried out with the agreement of the social agents ”. “In this sense, I believe that Parliament has a moral obligation to respect that agreement, but it has to incorporate its own decisions,” Bal said in statements to Europa Press. Cs requirements include incorporation of so-called austrian backpack or the primacy of the sector agreements for salary purposes. The Citizens’ deputy has criticized, however, what he understands as Sánchez’s inflexibility in the face of possible amendments: “I was shocked by his self-confidence when he says that Parliament only has to approve what the social agents have agreed to,” said Bal in reference to the Prime Minister.