The budgets were approved by the Chamber of Deputies by 281 votes in favor and 62 against, announced Alfredo Rodríguez, first vice president of Congress, who presided over the session.
“Consequently, the Senate amendment is approved and the general state budgets for 2022 are approved,” Rodríguez said.
Politically, the approval of the budgets means that the government of the socialist Pedro Sánchez, with a minority in Congress, will be able to finish the legislature in 2023.
“These are the accounts with the greatest political backing in history,” taking into account that up to 15 different formations, between Congress and the Senate, have supported these accounts, “the executive congratulated in a statement.
Budgets foresee a record level of spending of 240,000 million euros (about 269,000 million dollars), financed in part with 26,355 million euros of the European macro-plan for economic re-impetus, of which Spain, one of the main beneficiaries, will receive 140,000 million euros over six years.
“These accounts will also be the main tool to channel European funds that will help achieve this recovery,” the government added.
The accounts comprise a series of social measures, such as the revaluation of pensions and salaries of public employees, which will increase by 2% on January 1, as well as several measures against the precariousness of young people.
Among the latter, a monthly check of 250 euros ($ 280) to help low-income people between 18 and 35 years of age pay rent, and a cultural check of 400 euros ($ 450) for 18-year-olds spend on cultural activities.
These measures were mainly advocated by We can, a partner in the government coalition, which made its support conditional on the adoption of rules to regulate rental prices for large landlords in areas where the real estate market is stressed.
To approve the budgets, the government agreed to counterparts in exchange for the support of several small parties, including the Catalan independentists from ERC and the Basque separatists of Eh Bildu.
Thus, the Sánchez executive promised to abolish tolls on certain highways and implement a measure that obliges audiovisual platforms to ensure at least 6% of their production in Catalan, Basque or Galician.
Likewise, it included at the last minute an item of 1.6 million euros to support minority languages in eight Spanish regions.
These budgets should help Spain to consolidate its economic recovery, threatened by galloping inflation (5.5% in November) and a slower-than-expected reactivation of the tourism sector, on which 13% of jobs depend.
The Spanish economy, one of the most affected by the Covid-19 pandemic with a drop in its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of 10.8% in 2020, should not recover its pre-crisis level before 2023, according to the European Commission.
The increase in coronavirus cases at the end of the year, linked to the spread of Omicron variant, led several regions to implement restrictions that hit this sector the most.
The bad economic news has put pressure on the government, confronted with a nascent social discontent.
In its budgets, the Executive plans to reduce the public deficit to 5% next year, after reaching 8.4% in 2021. But it bases it on a growth forecast of 7% in 2022, deemed unrealistic by many economists.
Source From: Ambito
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