Defense spending ceiling increase

08/29/2022 at 10:48

EST


The vice president denounces that raising military spending does not lead to the creation of new jobs

The Second Vice President of the Government, Yolanda Díaz, has dropped that the General State Budgets will not include the increase in Defense promised by the Chief Executive, Pedro Sánchez. As explained by the also Labor Minister, the spending ceiling approved by the Council of Ministers at the beginning of summer does not contemplate the increase in military spending, which is a contradiction with the intentions expressed in recent weeks by the socialist ministers .

“What there is going to be are General Budgets and, as you know, the increase in Defense was certainly not included in the spending ceiling that we have negotiated.” Diaz responded with this forcefulness in an interview on Cadena Ser about the possibility that future public accounts include a rise in the Defense budget with the aim that by 2029 it will account for 2% of GDP. The President of the Government adopted this commitment at the end of June at the NATO summit held in Madrid.

From the first moment that raising military spending was put on the table, United We Can was categorically against it, arguing that it was necessary to use public money on social services. Following this argument, Díaz pointed out this Monday that “more than ever the Budgets have to respond and be useful to citizens” and that means that “they have to enter people’s houses.” The words of the vice president suppose a new hardening of the position of the purple ones that in recent weeks lowered the tone and demanded that this increase not be at the expense of social items.

The job

Díaz has also rejected the affirmations of the Minister of Defense, Margarita Robles, in which she pointed out that increasing military spending meant greater job creation. The vice president has denounced that the extra credit of 1,000 million euros that the Council of Ministers approved at the beginning of July for Defense did not suppose a single cent to “create employment”.

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