Final stretch for Sánchez: the laws that can still be approved in Congress

MadridIn less than a month, the session period in the Congress of Deputies ends. The last week of ordinary activity in the lower house will be that of June 24, when Pedro Sánchez's appearance is scheduled due to the latest judicial scandals in his circle. The Spanish Prime Minister will have to give explanations regarding the indictment of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero and the revelations from the investigation into the Leire Díez case. This judicial minefield of the PSOE has relegated legislative matters to the background. With a weaker parliamentary majority than ever, Sánchez faces the final stretch of the legislature with serious doubts about whether he will manage to approve the laws that are pending in Congress, as well as the outstanding agreements with his investiture allies.

Left-wing parties such as Sumar, ERC, and EH Bildu have raised their voices in recent weeks to demand that the socialists react and accelerate the pace to deploy the social agenda during the next session period. From September to December of this year, if there is no early election, the PSOE will still have another opportunity to try, although the pronouncements of other parties such as Junts, the PNB, and Podemos, which have proclaimed that the legislature is already exhausted, complicate the possibilities for the pending measures to see the light of day. The specter of early elections, as well as that of a vote of no confidence, also makes it unpredictable what might happen between now and 2027, when the elections are scheduled.

The commitment to the budgets

Despite this perspective, at Moncloa they maintain the determination to present a budget project for the autumn, which is the most important initiative they have on the horizon. In fact, the day before Sánchez's appearance, the first vice-president and Minister of Economy, Carlos Cuerpo, will bring to the council of ministers the update of the macroeconomic framework for the State's public accounts. Sources from the Spanish government say they plan, according to their plans, to present them before October begins. Sánchez's executive is still working with the prorogated 2023 budgets, which is one of the main criticisms leveled against it by the opposition, especially the PP, although it is also a demand from partners, such as Sumar, as it is one of the ways to ensure that some of the policies they aspire to develop are concreted.

Armengol's freezer

Dozens of norms are in what Alberto Núñez Feijóo's party has dubbed "Francina Armengol's freezer," referring to the president of Congress and the fact that numerous opposition proposals never manage to complete the parliamentary process. Coming only from the Senate, where the PP has an absolute majority, there are about forty blocked bills.

Sources from the Popular Party emphasize that there are some that, if unfrozen, could be approved with the votes of Junts and the PNB. This is the case for the PP's housing laws, specifically against occupations or the land law. In the first case, the PP has tried to give it new momentum by presenting a similar one during this session through an initiative from its parliamentary group in Congress. The one from the Senate has been in the amendment phase for more than two years, with almost ninety extensions of time.

The PP's proposals are not the only ones that have never seen the light of day because they are in parliamentary limbo. There are more than a hundred initiatives in the amendment phase in Congress, including legislative proposals from the plurinational majority as well as legislative projects from the Spanish government. One of those that has recently managed to emerge and has a chance of progressing due to Junts' predisposition is the film law, which after almost two years in the same drawer will reach the plenary next week with the vote on the amendments in their entirety by PP and Vox. This initiative, in fact, is carried over from the previous legislature when it was frustrated by the early election. Also pending since before 2023 is the reform of the citizen security law, known as the gag law, which already successfully overcame the right's amendments in their entirety a year and a half ago, although it is stuck in the next phase, that of the report and subsequent opinion in the Interior commission.

However, from the Ministry of the Presidency, Justice and Relations with the Courts, headed by Minister Félix Bolaños, the negotiator par excellence with the parliamentary groups, they claim that the Spanish government "is normally developing its legislative agenda". Sources consulted by ARA highlight the forecast that in the coming weeks laws such as "the one that ensures a dignified pension for mutualists, the one that penalizes so-called conversion therapies or the regulation of neonatal screenings" will be definitively approved. In a slightly longer term within this final stretch of the legislature, in addition to the budgets, they set as priorities proposals to prohibit access to social networks for minors under sixteen years of age, the improvement of the regional financing system, and the debt forgiveness or the regulation of tourist rentals.

The demands of ERC and Junts

Precisely from ERC, they place this reform of financing as one of the central axes of their pending demands in what remains of the legislature, as well as blocked laws in Congress such as the plurilingualism law and the industry law, still in the amendment phase. Housing is also one of the priorities, and sources from the Republicans recall that they still have pending the processing of their bill on seasonal rentals and rooms. The latter is an initiative that can predictably clash with the opposition from Junts, which maintains that it is not willing to negotiate anything with the PSOE. Junts sources circumscribe the laws to which they can give support in what remains of the legislature to the commitments that the PSOE had already acquired with them, such as the delegation of powers in immigration, or matters that may align with their own agenda.