Announced and consummated. Spain's alternative left party Podemos, which freed itself from the uncomfortable shackles of the Yolanda Díaz's Sumar parliamentary group before Christmas, announced this Wednesday that it would vote against one of the three decree-laws that the Pedro Sánchez's government sought to pass through the Congress of Deputies this Wednesday. It was Ione Belarra, general secretary of Podemos, who announced that they were "rejecting" the decree that had been promoted by Díaz herself, as labour minister. It is a decree on unemployment benefits. At that point, Podemos had already cast its electronic votes, so its vote was final. However, the party did reach an agreement with the Socialists (PSOE) to support the two remaining decree-laws: one of broad anti-crisis measures and the so-called 'omnibus' package that includes aspects related to the civil service and justice, including the point that pro-independence Junts was hotly opposed to because of its potential to make the Catalan amnesty ineffective.
And so it was: in fact, after an afternoon of uncertainty about the outcome of the voting for all three decrees, Junts reached a last-minute deal with the PSOE and thus, when the results were announced at around 6pm, Yolanda Díaz's unemployment measure was the only one to get the thumbs down. Belarra stated that they "wanted" to be able to vote in favour of the labour ministry's decree, but that, "unfortunately", the Spanish government had "not committed to withdraw the reduction in people's pensions for those who received the unemployment allowance from the age of 52". Thus, the Podemos head urged the Sánchez executive to "withdraw the decree and re-present it without that reduction".
But despite that disagreement, Podemos did indeed reach agreements with the Socialists: to suspend home evictions over lapsed mortgages for four years in exchange for their support for the decree package of anti-crisis measures. Belarra presented this agreement with the PSOE as "support for the social shield", which "includes measures that Podemos negotiated" when it was in the cabinet, in exchange for "extending the suspension of mortgage evictions of vulnerable families until 2028 ”, a measure she described as “minimum and essential social protection”. Podemos sources indicate that the text of this measure will be brought to Congress as a bill within six months.