The last-minute negotiations to save the labor reform, a few hours before the validation of the decree law is voted on in the Congress of Deputies, is one of the most illuminating images of how far the interests of the parties from the interests of the citizens they represent. After achieving something as complicated as agree with unions and employers to reform the labor framework, it seemed that some legislators were more interested in the erosion of the political adversary than the practical consequences of approving or not one of the star measures of this legislature, which aims to reduce job insecurity and abuses in temporary hiring.
Of course, the text could have been more ambitious, but defending maximalisms would have made consensus between CCOO, UGT and the CEOE. So inexplicable is the ‘no’ of the PP against the criteria of the bosses as the ‘no’ of ERC against what was agreed by the unions, unless other motivations are included in the equation. In view of the monolithic opposition exerted Paul Married before any action of the Government, the 89 popular deputies are discarded of any type of political agreement. The Government, on the other hand, continues to press to attract the 13 Republican deputies and the six from the PNV, its priority partners, who for the moment remain in the block rejecting the law, unless amendments are included. A requirement that they know Pedro Sanchez cannot grant, because any modification of the text would imply the pick-up of the employer, which is not contemplated.
calculator in hand, ERC and PNV are pushing the Government to seek the support of Citizens with their slam, willing to vote in favor on the condition that not a single comma of the royal decree is touched, which would give the opportunity to Ines Arrimadas to occupy the lost political centrality. This option is, at the moment, the most likely, after in the last hours they have joined the yes block More Country-Equo and Compromís. In a very tight 170 yeses against 173 noes, what the four PDECat deputies decide will tip the balance.
The renewed role of Cs makes the coalition partner of the PSOE uncomfortable, United We Can, the party of the vice president Yolanda Diaz, who has led the negotiations and who preferred not to have the support of the oranges. So the labor reform has also been a source of friction within the Government, one year before the general elections.
Validation in Congress is a mechanism that grants democratic guarantees to decree laws approved by the Executive. It is a necessary and indisputable step. What is not understandable is that the games of alliances and parliamentary arithmetic come to distort the original spirit of this legislative mechanism, to the point of put at risk the fulfillment of a broad social demand to improve the 2012 PB reform, which unions and employers made explicit in the form of an agreement at the end of last year, and which is also one of the conditions for Brussels to receive European funds. It is possible to trust in the responsibility of the parliamentary majority to carry out this Thursday’s vote, however, the use of some formations with partisan interests leaves the bitter feeling that politics has not lived up to a crucial norm for workers and entrepreneurs in this country.