spanish government

On the same day that Catalan hospitals presented their plans to reduce their budget by 10% and cut several services, the Catalan Government’s Spokesperson sent a strong message to Madrid saying that "enough was enough." The Spanish Government answered the calls by the Catalan Executive by saying that if it does not meet the 1.3% deficit objective for 2011, it will run out of cash. Madrid is asking for greater budget cuts. Almost all Catalan political parties, including the People’s Party, back up the Catalan Government, the main exception being the Socialist Party, which supports Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero.

The Spanish Government demands an additional budget reduction of 3.2 billion euros to Catalonia, while the Catalan Government claims 3.3 billion owed by the Spanish State. Catalan parties have accused Prime Minister Zapatero of reducing his government’s deficit by increasing that of the autonomous communities. The Spanish Government wants to force Autonomous Communities to pay for the deficit by limiting it through specific laws.

After the Spanish Governments announcement to reduce the price of local train tickets by 5% with the aim of fostering public transportation to save fuel, the Catalan Government, which manages the service in Catalonia, quantified in 26 million euros its loss in 1 year. Therefore, the Catalan Executive refused to pay for the measure. The Spanish Government will pay 6.75 million euros for 3 months of the measure.

Spain saw 2010 end with 9.24% of public deficit; 4.97% corresponds to the Spanish Government, 3.39% to the autonomous communities and 0.64% to the local administrations. According to the Spanish Government, half of the autonomous communities saw the year come to an end far away from the objective of 2.4% - Catalonia included. The Catalan Government emphasised that the Spanish Government cut down the revenues of the autonomous communities.

The Spanish Government gave eight autonomous communities the green light to issue a fixed amount of new debt in order to refinance old loans. With this, Catalonia will be able to issue new debt of 1,866 million euros. However, 1,090 million of this will be used on old healthcare payments from 2006.

The Catalan violoncello player and composer Pau Casals was asked in 1971 to create an anthem for the United Nations by the former Secretary General. However, after Pau Casals death and the change of UN Secretary General, the anthem was never played again. The Spanish Parliament’s Culture Commission came to an unanimous motion to ask the Spanish Government to push for the restoration of the United Nations official anthem.

The Catalan Government will be able to issue more public debt and the State will pay Catalonia 759 million euros that are pending from 2008. According to the Catalan Government, the Spanish Executive owes more than 2,100 million euros, although the figure could be larger. The Catalan President, Artur Mas, claimed this amount and the Catalan Government’s capacity to issue new debt, after having presented a viability and austerity plan a week ago. Both leaders discussed pending competence devolutions today regarding already approved legislation and agreements, but without concrete results. Prime Minister Zapatero was also very interested in this meeting as he wants to count on votes from Mas’ party in the Spanish Parliament. Mas confirmed that his party would support Zapatero’s measures to foster the economic recovery, such as the pension system reform agreement or a new framework for SMEs.

The Catalan Government sent its austerity and viability plan to the Spanish Ministry of Economy for reviewing yesterday. The plan reduces the public deficit in more than 2 points and sets it at 1.3% for 2011. The finances of the Catalan Government are generating a wide debate at the moment, which is even been covered by international media.

Zapatero's government justifies the decision to declare the state of alert and guarantees that the Christmas holidays will not suffer any disruptions. However, passengers face new threats as ground staff considers taking industrial action against the plans to privatise the air traffic authority

Prime Minister Zapatero needs the votes from other parties to pass his Labour Market reform. Artur Mas, President of the Centre-Right Catalan Nationalist Party (CiU) has affirmed today that his party will not block the reform in the Spanish Parliament. Ci

The Spanish Government has finally issued today the highly expected reform of the labour market. Companies will be able to fire employees after paying 33 days of compensation, from which the State will pay 8.

The two main trade unions have announced a general strike against the job market reform planned by the Spanish Government. This reform has been discussed among the trade unions, business associations and the Spanish Government for more than 2 years.