The 2019 Budget - almost

Some exciting news this week – potentially – as the two main parties of the left agree over the details of next year’s budget. So far, the PNV regionalist party has agreed to support the plan. El País in English leads with ‘Spain’s PM and Podemos leader sign deal for biggest wage hike in 40 years’. Well, yes, that’s certainly a part of the deal. Spain’s minimum wage would go up from 736€ a month to 900€ (France, by contrast, is 1500€). A meme on Facebook says ‘900€? I’ll be able to realise my life’s ambition of eating an avocado’. Funny, because, avocados are a bit overrated, and funny too, because with 736 euros, or even 900 euros, one still isn’t exactly wealthy.

How many people working – at least in the orbit of us wealthy foreign residents (er, mostly) – earn 736€ a month for a full-time job? Not many, we hope. Fruit packers and some other agricultural jobs… cleaners perhaps…? It’s a slave wage certainly and we probably shouldn't worry too much

about the lowest paid sending their money off to Offshore Tax Paradises.

Not everyone agrees. The two main opposition parties think that raising the minimum wage is a bad idea. Albert Rivera from Ciudadanos (4,800€ a month) and Pablo Casado (5,700€ a month) are both against the idea (although Rivera was campaigning for 1,000€ per month not so long ago). El País again: ‘...The CEOE employers’ association has already talked about “the negative effects” of such a move on collective bargaining, wages and the economy in general. If implemented, it would be the biggest rise in 40 years...’.

There is much more in the budget that the raising of the minimum wage, and the availability of avocados.

However, and who knows – it could even make sense – as the figures are balanced here.

Top-earners, those who earn more than 130,000€ a year, can expect a rise in their income tax and ‘large fortunes’ would pay more tax as well. Rents would be controlled in certain cases. As El Huff Post says - ‘...While the Partido Popular, Ciudadanos and Vox are fighting for the same ground on the right, the PSOE and Podemos are laying the foundations of an agreement that behind the numbers hides the principle of a close and lasting collaboration in the medium and long term...’. From Valencia Plaza comes a note on another useful subject: ‘...under the heading "Health is a universal right and not a business", the signatories of the pact argue that "The excuse of the economic crisis has been used to weaken public health and encourage its progressive privatization, which is why it is still necessary to shield our health system against privatization flows and attacks by interested sectors.”...’. Furthermore, and again quoting Valencia Plaza, ‘...the Government and Unidos Podemos have also agreed to reform the ‘stamps’ system of self-employed workers to link it to their real income, guaranteeing that those with lower incomes pay a lower contribution...’. El Huff Post has a full list of the accords here.
But the success of the socially progressive budget plan depends on uncertain support from the Catalan separatists who understandably ‘...request the Prosecutor's Office to withdraw the charges against their imprisoned and exiled leaders to support the General Budget. The government view on this is that such a solution is impossible given the separation of powers in force in Spain’, and, secondly, on the approval of the EU. To thwart this second condition, the PP leader Pablo Casado has flown to Brussels to put his oar in the deal, much to the amazement of his fellow Spaniards...

If all goes according tp plan, the budgets should finally be approved in February or March.