The commitment to budgets and the fiscal

MadridThis year, the month of August will be a mirage. It must seem that way to all of us, because everyone would like to disconnect and escape the constant noise. But it won't be easy. These are more pre-election times than ever. The People's Party (PP) has been calling for elections since the beginning of the term. This is nothing new. What's new is that now it seems we can begin a somewhat faster period that ends at the polls. It's not insignificant, in this sense, that the Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, has committed to presenting a draft budget for 2026The Popular Party doesn't believe he'll do it. They say he's proven to be a compulsive liar and won't have enough support, which is why he'll back down at the last minute and end up not making any budget proposal. I'm not so sure. However, the polling forecasts don't justify or explain everything. I think this time the Socialist leader wants to play hardball in the budget game.

Sánchez is aware that the legislature has entered the phase of what in the world of tennis is called the tie break. There may be a year or two left until we go to vote, but from now on, the game is accelerating, and it's no longer prudent to dwell on procrastinating. Sánchez is interested and convenient in judging the timing carefully, working thoroughly with the calendar, and holding a mirror up to everyone. This is the meaning of the announcement that this year he will present a draft of the State accounts for 2026, that is, a comprehensive budget proposal consistent with the social profile of a period of taking advantage of the positive macroeconomic data. The idea is to summon the other parliamentary forces and settle the score, never better said. It's a kind of reverse vote of confidence. In this case, it's not the opposition requesting it to try to demonstrate the government's weakness. Now, the president of the executive is presenting it so that everyone has to get involved, especially those who have been his allies until now. The move is risky, without a doubt. But for everyone.

The role of partners

If the government fails to pass a provisional budget, many headlines will say that its parliamentary weakness has been demonstrated once again. And they will not be wrong in this. But other things will have been demonstrated, such as the majority's preference for tactical thinking rather than a commitment to the general interest. Denying an end to the term with a budget can only be explained as an option of supposed electoral effectiveness. This is understandable in the case of the PP, whose sole objective is the leading opposition party. However, it would be a more difficult role to assume in the case of the investiture partners. Even Junts, which insisted months ago, on the appropriateness of a motion of confidence, should think it through carefully. It's worth remembering that the effectiveness of the amnesty depends in part on European justice, but above all on the Constitutional Court. which must resolve the appeals for protection by Puigdemont and others.

We have come into this world to suffer, but not to suffer needlessly. No one will benefit from a legislature without renewed accounts. If the PP wins the next elections, it will not be because of that success, but rather due to a set of factors related to the general wear and tear of the government and its loss of credibility, partly at the hands of the judges. Now, it is understandable that it will play hardball in this time of crisis. tie-break and bet on the parliamentary defeat of Sánchez for the same reasons that he tried to overturn the labor reform that is being the background of the scene of the 22 million employed people in the country as a whole. On the other hand, those who have so far supported the government enough to prevent its fall, what benefit would they gain from a PSOE defeat in one of what could be the main initiatives of the entire legislature?

Therefore, if Sánchez really plays hard with this proposal and doesn't back down, his game will have become the aforementioned reverse confidence motion, because those who will be challenged will be those who have recently been playing the tug-of-war. This is like what the Socialist leader did when he retired for five days to reflect on whether he was leaving politics. At no point did he consider quitting. But he was more than ever in the spotlight, taking advantage of the profile of a victim of an offense to try to return with more vigor. Now Sánchez, a feline with seven lives, is using this other point in the political tennis match to throw the ball hard, to see how it is returned to him from the back of the court.

The prosecutor before the new judicial year

Another area where the government is playing a strong role is the case against the Attorney General, Álvaro García Ortiz. The judicial left is deeply concerned about the precedent this case represents, with requests for four to six years in prison. for the alleged leak of secret data Regarding the tax crimes of which businessman Alberto González Amador, partner of the president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, is accused, he does not want to hand over García Ortiz's boss. King Felipe VI, at the opening of the judicial year. -BK_SLT_LNA~ Certainly, in this case the image will be unusual. student temporarily suspend García Ortiz as a precautionary measure. For the government and the judicial left, the problem is that an attorney general has been brought to trial and could be convicted without objective evidence of his alleged crime. From this perspective, the dissenting opinion of Judge Andrés Palomo, who opposes the decision to bring the state prosecutor to trial, is emphasized. Without a doubt, the case is a test of the role the Supreme Court can play in the struggle for power between the government and the opposition.