With the rejection of the amendments in the entirety to the Spanish government budget bill, Pedro Sánchez has achieved a milestone with a certain degree of difficulty - getting the go-ahead for the four budgets of a mandate - and, what is more, he also gains control of the calendar for the last part of the legislature, taking into account that he needed the ability to carry on until the second semester next year, when it will be his turn to be the rotating president of the European Union. The fact that the PSOE has been able to attract 187 votes against rejecting the entire budget bill, the same figure as it obtained in the January 2020 session that allowed the Socialist leader to form a government, reflects that, despite all the ups and downs that were inevitable after the Socialists won only 120 of the 176 seats needed for an absolute majority, stability in their parliamentary support has been the dominant note of these years.
Sánchez has obtained, in addition to the 35 votes of junior coalition partner Unidas Podemos and its various territorial organizations, the support of ERC, the Basque Nationalists, Bildu and the four PDeCAT deputies who split from the candidacy of Junts. And also, seven more votes from parties with one or two deputies in Congress. Much has been said about his management of the arithmetical difficulties in the Spanish parliament in recent years, but the reality has been much less disturbing than expected in 2019, which says a lot about Sánchez's ability but also about the inability of the opposition PP to put the left-wing government in a bind.
The last votes that Sánchez has been able to put in his basket were those of the ERC deputies, with whom he has made partial agreements on some matters although the major one has to do with sedition, aggravated public disorder and the reform of the Penal Code. A modification of the Penal Code that only has the support of ERC among the pro-independence parties and which has prompted sharp rejection from both Junts and the CUP. In the case of Junts, also putting the emphasizing on the fact that it criminalizes the right to protest.
Junts also highlighted the statements by several Spanish government ministers affirming that one of the objectives of the reform of the crime of sedition was to facilitate the extradition of Catalan president Carles Puigdemont, something that has been impossible until now much to the chagrin of the Supreme Court and judges Pablo Llarena and Manuel Marchena. ERC has always denied that it is now easier to extradite Puigdemont and the current climate of rupture between the two parties means that in each episode the possibility of a real pitched battle is glimpsed. That's what was also seen this Thursday in the Parliament of Catalonia with the vote of censure to the interior minister, Joan Ignasi Elena, which Junts made possible through its abstention.
It remains to be seen what happens with the misuse of funds crime, which requires legislative reform but which, according to all indicators, will be left for another occasion. It's not good news but it reflects the degree to which Pedro Sánchez is paying for the support he received with an eye-dropper and the strategy has worked well enough for him so far.