The General State Budgets, the most important law for any government, this week passed the parliamentary endorsement test without too many problems. It was not a Stations of the Cross, as on other occasions. The accounts for 2022, the expected course of recovery after the worst of the pandemic, added 188 votes in favor and 159 against in most of its chapters. They attracted the support of 11 parties and 55% of the deputies. The Government, La Moncloa, the Ministry of Finance and the parliamentary groups again hastened the contacts to the limit on a project that will now continue its way in the Senate.

The Executive finally granted the nine parliamentary partners who entered this sudoku 232 amendments that will add 396.47 million euros on a global budget with the highest social spending in history (240,375 million), an item of 126,500 million for the autonomies and a forecast of 26,335 million investments from European funds. The economic transfers to investment and infrastructure partners have not, however, been the most relevant of these negotiations.

A total of 92 senior officials appeared in the Cortes to explain their political intentions on the basis of those numbers and items. The right-wing opposition, and particularly the PP, registered up to 1,070 amendments with proposals for corrections. They were not admitted, because the Executive understood that they contained impacts on the expenses that were not anticipated in the income. The negotiators held meetings with spokespersons for the nine allied groups, but also with other forces with which an agreement was not reached, such as the BNG, Junts or the Canary Islands Coalition. This is a summary of those contacts.

The audiovisual law and ERC. The transactions that lasted the longest were those that wanted to tie up with the Catalan Republicans, who preside over the Generalitat and with whom they want to promote the dialogue table to seek solutions to the independence process. ERC obtained 51 partial amendments totaling 73.67 million. In the previous days, the Republican spokesman, Gabriel Rufián, came to appear to warn that they had been 15 minutes away from knocking down the project with an amendment to the entirety because the economic vice president, Nadia Calviño, blocked a solution to another law, the audiovisual, by not allowing a minimum quota for production in the co-official languages ​​on platforms such as Netflix or Amazon. That quota was later set at 6%, ERC loosen its pressure, granted the Budgets and thus highlighted the core that the protection of Catalan continues to be for its training. Rufián has regretted much, however, that it costs so much to force the progressive coalition government, and in particular its socialist sector, to implement certain left-wing policies.

The PNV votes yes, but without agreement. The other great preferred partner of the entire legislature continues to be the PNV. The Basque nationalists have negotiated as always in silence for weeks, they have reflected their demands in 44 amendments, which reach 80 million, but they have not wanted those achievements to appear as a global agreement. Its already closed items include 50 million for the execution of two hydraulic works (the Añarbe canal, in Gipuzkoa, and the Galindo treatment plant, in the Biscayan town of Sestao) and it remains to be determined what it will mean to expand the economic benefit for care sick minors up to 23 years of age. The most symbolic aspect of its demands has been the unblocking of the management of the minimum vital income, in which the autonomous government considers itself a pioneer. With Transport, the solution for the entry of the AVE in the three Basque capitals remains stuck.

Social aspects with EH Bildu and not to mention prisoners. The Executive’s negotiation with EH Bildu has once again been discreet, but effective, very social and not political in relation to Basque nationalism and ETA prisoners. The spokespersons abertzales They have even allowed themselves to sign up so many that were not exclusively theirs, such as a compensation fund for the victims of asbestos of 25 million, which the entire Basque Parliament demanded, and which has now been unblocked and which should be activated with a law in two months . The 12 amendments that have been successful by EH Bildu will amount to 45.3 million. The independence coalition demanded that ETB-3, the Basque television channel for children, be able to broadcast throughout Navarre before the end of 2022.

Complications with PDeCAT. The negotiation was one of the most difficult. The four split deputies of Junts put in the end 45 amendments that suppose 15 million. But its main demand was that non-profit entities that provide social and health services in Catalonia be allowed access to European funds. The PDeCAT interlocutor, Ferran Bel, even threatened to leave the pact, but the Government insisted not so much because those votes were essential as to offer the image of a broad agreement with many forces. Bel accepted in exchange for investments in various municipalities.

The Canarian peculiarity and with Revilla. One of the alliances that was forged faster was with Nueva Canarias (NC), because there is already an agreement with that party in the Canary Government, as is the case with Miguel Ángel Revilla’s Cantabria Regionalist Party. The NC spokesman, Pedro Quevedo, put in 41 amendments 100.4 million for the islands and specifically for arrangements on La Palma, so badly hit by the volcano. The pact was not viable with CC and Ana Oramas because it demanded 700 million. The PRC added to what was previously negotiated another five amendments for three million more.

More Country and Commitments. The 10 amendments closed by the party led by Íñigo Errejón reach 23.7 million. The most important will mean 10 million for companies that agree to reduce working hours; five million for the creation of the Spanish Agency for the Supervision of Artificial Intelligence, which will monitor the use of algorithms by large companies to attract users and another five to prevent suicide among adolescents. Among the smaller items there are provisions for the implementation of night trains or for a map of cycle routes. Most of the seven amendments and the 26.8 million square with Compromís are for railway investments and the airport. The most decisive is the commitment to publish the new regional financing model in a few weeks.

Teruel continues to exist. The spokesman for Teruel Existe, Tomás Guitarte, managed to include 14 amendments with 21.5 million more for his province. Most to improve communication with the Mediterranean Corridor. Construction of the Alcañiz-Reus highway will begin and 13 million will be allocated to modernize the train track between Zaragoza and Sagunto (Valencia). With 2.5 million the National Museum of Ethnography will be created.