Audiovisual Law, Sahara, tax reform and the public energy company cover the gaps of PSOE and UP in Congress

MADRID, 29 May. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The Audiovisual Law, the Sahara issue, the tax reform and the creation of a public energy company concentrate the main gaps between the PSOE and United We Can in the votes in Congress, which have intensified in recent months.

Last Thursday, the vote was divided for the first time in the coalition when deciding on a bill emanating from the Council of Ministers itself, given that the minority partner opted for abstention while the Socialists voted in favor.

And it is that until that moment the discrepancies were limited to minor parliamentary initiatives, such as propositions not of law (NLP) or proposals for admission to processing of legislative proposals of the groups.

Several ministers of the socialist wing, worked this Friday to minimize the breakdown of the voting unit, spoke of a greased relationship in the Executive and that what happened in the Audiovisual Law was an exception that does not cause mistrust. Even the president, Pedro Sánchez, praised the coalition government.

Of course, the head of the Treasury, María Jesús Montero, reminded United We Can that they are the minority partner while sources from the majority wing of the Executive were more critical, not understanding the attitude of their colleagues in the Government and highlighting that they are not interested in continuing this path.

For their part, from the confederal space they affirm that the coalition is not in danger and that they acted responsibly by opting for abstention, but they defend that they could not support an initiative that violates the initial consensus on the regulations, also using the ruse of some supposed technical amendments to favor the television "duopoly" against independent production companies.

In this way, sources from this formation allege that "everything cannot be valid", both in the process and also in seeking the abstention of the PP, and emphasize that the members of the multinational majority voted against, which should lead the PSOE to take note because the investiture block brings stability and a progressive sense to the legislature.

On the other hand, the president of the parliamentary group in Congress, Jaume Asens, has requested the meeting of the monitoring table of the coalition agreement to "smooth the rough edges" that may have arisen and that the dialogue between the two parties must be increased of the Executive.

All this in a context in which the Executive has passed several laws and measures with a tight margin in the Lower House, as has already happened with the labor reform, the anti-crisis decree or saving the amendments to the entire National Security Law.

During the last months, PSOE and United We Can have shown divergences when voting for other initiatives, such as the rejection of the socialists to the proposal for a housing law proposed by the social groups, which the purples did support although they withdrew their signature from the initiative.

There was also discrepancy with the tax reform proposal, in the form of PNL, promoted by United We Can and other investiture partners and provoked the rejection of the Socialists, who voted against along with PP, Vox and Ciudadanos.

In April, the Plenary approved the initiative of Podemos, ERC and Bildu in favor of an agreed referendum on Western Sahara, despite the fact that the PSOE distanced itself from its coalition partner and its allies by voting against it. And on Thursday the Socialists were once again left alone to defend the president's position while the confederal space supported a PP initiative that censored the president's turn.

On another level, the partners have also voted differently at the Congress Table to the request for an investigation commission on irregularities by King Emeritus Juan Carlos I, given that the purples have promoted this request that the PSOE has rejected on several occasions.

There was also a separation of votes in the opinion of the commission on the accident JK5022 of Spanair, whose conclusions were supported by Podemos although the PSOE chose to cast its own vote. In the case of the Kitchen commission there was also a risk of a separate vote but in the end they reached the limit of the record at a common point.

Another minor gap occurred with the validation at the end of July of last year in Congress for the interim stabilization decree law, when in a hasty negotiation the Ministry of Finance obtained the support of the confederal group, although the deputy Rosa Medel voted in against in conscience and the absence of his partner Roberto Uriarte in that session generated a tie that forced to repeat the vote.

In that second vote, the deputy of United We Can decided to be absent to facilitate the approval of the regulations, although later in September the partners voted differently on this matter in a motion of the Canary Coalition. However, later they reached an agreement in September for the bill to reduce temporary employment in public employment.

Also in the month of February there were several voting discrepancies, both in relation to the initiatives for tax reform and the creation of a public energy company, which the purples promoted and which the socialists decided to overthrow.

PSOE and United We Can again vote differently also in a non-law proposal of More Country to prohibit the advertising of polluting vehicles and in a motion of the Asturias Forum to support the electro-intensive industry. Moreover, they were even defeated in an ERC initiative.

Another point of dissonance was the format for investigating sexual abuse of minors within the Church, given that the purples prevailed over an investigative commission in Congress and the socialists opted to limit it to the scope of the Ombudsman.

Finally, there was an 'in extremis' agreement with United We Can and other investiture partners, who endorsed the Ombudsman route although they defended that guarantees were achieved to create an "authentic truth commission" that would force the Church to cooperate.

These gaps in the coalition as a whole motivated the respective spokespersons for PSOE and United We Can in Congress, Héctor Gómez and Pablo Echenique, to hold a meeting in February to try to strengthen relations between the two formations and try to "consolidate coordination".

At the beginning of the legislature, the partners held coordination meetings, popularly known as 'matins', which lasted until the first quarter of last year, although they were later paralyzed due to other types of contacts that were not as scheduled.

In any case, coalition sources emphasize that contacts are frequent at different levels, both parliamentary and between ministries, and that the president, Pedro Sánchez, and the second vice president, Yolanda Díaz, regularly dispatch.