The consultations and work began almost at the same moment that the election results of July 23 were known. That night, in addition to glimpses of a possible Government led by Pedro Sánchez, which has finally been formed, it was also confirmed that the Popular Party would have a large majority in the Senate. And in the Ministry of Finance they began to contemplate that The PP could use that situation to torpedo the approval of hypothetical General State Budgets (PGE) of the coalition Executive.
Popular threats they only confirmed that fear, and the department of María Jesús Montero, as EL MUNDO has learned, accelerated its activity despite the fact that at that time the person running for president was Alberto Núñez Feijóo. The question was how to prevent the Senate’s rejection of the deficit targets from paralyzing public accounts, since that approval is fundamental in the process. In 2019 precisely the same thing happened, and what was done was to resort to the objectives set out in the previous Budgets.
But the peculiarity of this occasion is that, due to the suspension of European fiscal rules, in the previous accounts, in those for 2023, there was no type of objective. Only some indicative figures that, in the opinion of the PP, were not valid once the fiscal rules are back in force, which is precisely what will happen next year.
With all these ingredients, Hacienda turned to the State Attorney’s Office, which has prepared an opinion that was also revealed yesterday by the fourth vice president of the Executive. Supported by that document, Montero, in the press conference after the Fiscal and Financial Policy Council (CPFF), stated without leaving room for any doubt that “there will be budgets.” According to the text, in the event that “the legislative chambers do not approve the deficit objectives that are submitted for their consideration, those that are valid are those that were committed to Brussels in the Stability Plan,” explained the minister.
The process, therefore, would be the following. The Government obtains approval of the path in Congress, but the Senate rejects it. Within a maximum period of one month, and without having to change the planned deficit figures, the Executive repeats the process, and as soon as the PP once again asserts its majority, the path that automatically comes into force is the one that was included in the document sent to Europe last spring.