While all eyes remain on whether the government will be able to tie up the support to approve the labor reform in early February in Congress, other economic ministers are concentrating on their star plans for the new political year. The Minister of Social Security, José Luis Escrivá, has in hand the new quotation system by tranches for freelancers and the creation of the new fund of pensions public, and both things have been reported to the financial manager of the PP, Elvira Rodríguez. It’s one of the few threads of contact between the government and the first opposition party, whose bridges are essentially broken due to deep discrepancies between leaders, according to El Periódico de España.
But, while other ministers like Yolanda Diaz they have given up reporting and talking of the new labor legislation with forces such as PP (including Ciudadanos, despite the fact that it has confirmed its affirmative vote on the reform if “a comma is not touched” of what was agreed with the social agents), Escrivá tries to maintain dialogue with the different forces. A few days ago he had lunch with the popular leader to insist on the importance of the two great projects that the Executive has committed to the European Union and that depend on his portfolio.
It was not on the table to ask for support from the PP, but to report on its plans for the coming months, unlike other members of the Council of Ministers who have not done so. Fountains of the dome of Citizens also confirm to The Newspaper of Spain, that the dialogue with Escrivá is “more fluid & rdquor; and that informs them promptly of its most important initiatives.
The popular have been critical of the proposal by sections of the minister and, in fact, Pablo Casado met a few days ago with Lorenzo Amor, president of ATA, who has already spoken out against it. “We support the self-employed against the Government’s hack. They have already endured too much in this crisis&rdquor ;, settled the leader of the PP. Neither Ciudadanos sees with good eyes the sections devised by the Executive. With respect to the public pension fund, the popular insist that all the details remain to be known.
As published by El Periódico de España, the social agents also consider that the project lacks maturity and that is why, today, they do not see their support possible.
In any case, PP sources acknowledge that to negotiate support for the first opposition party, the first step is to report on the policies. The popular often reproach the Executive for the lack of dialogue and transparency in major legislative projects, despite the fact that later Moncloa asks to “widen majorities & rdquor; to carry out their initiatives.
The most recent example is the labor reform, on which the PP will not change its position, also alleging that the Government “has not picked up the phone at any time & rdquor;. Leaders close to Fátima Báñez, who these weeks has made headlines precisely because she was the architect of the 2012 reform and is now linked to the employers’ association (she chairs the CEOE Foundation), assure that the former minister “always called all the forces to inform of their plans & rdquor ;, regardless of “whether he later asked them for support or not & rdquor ;. “Even Podemos & rdquor ;, ditch in the popular orbit of the Government of Mariano Rajoy.
Despite the fact that the minister of the presidency, Félix Bolaños, and Casado’s number two, Teodoro García Egea, are the ones who usually act as a bridge when the big negotiations arrive (such as the General Council of the Judiciary) there is no such fluid communication between them as their environments sometimes launch.
The growing tension between Russia and Ukraine it did react to the PP this week, confirming the popular leader himself that “I would support the government & rdquor; in your position, although he asked Moncloa to give explanations as soon as possible to Congress. Casado has always demanded unity in State policies, and very especially in regard to foreign policies. In the party they recognize that it is one of their obsessions and that, for this reason, they came forward to lend support to the Government. He does it at a time when his relationship with Pedro Sánchez is almost non-existent. They haven’t even spoken in months.
In this context, the relationship that some ministers such as Escrivá have with the opposition parties becomes almost the exception. What the PP does criticize the Minister for Inclusion is the lack of concrete data. That there is never an exchange of papers or figures to analyze. It also happened in the pension reform related to the repeal of the sustainability factor that came to include the so-called intergenerational equity factor, and that also raised blisters among all the political groups due to the lack of information.