PP blames Socialists and Podemos for risk of missing deficit targets
Spokesperson for governing party, Rafael Hernando, responds to EC report
The governing Popular Party (PP) responded on Tuesday to a European Commission (EC) report on Spain’s budget, in which Brussels warned that the government will not be able to meet its deficit reduction goals for this year and the next, and called for amendments to plans after the upcoming general election, scheduled for December 20.
The PP’s reaction to the report was to discredit its author, the European commissioner Pierre Moscovici. According to PP spokesperson Rafael Hernando, the commissioner “has not acted with prudence, and has been swept along by his Socialist affiliation.” Hernando went on to point out that when Moscovici was a government minister in France, he left behind a significant deviation from the country’s deficit target.
The report from the commissioner has been ratified by the EC and refers specifically to the 2016 accounts, which are still making their way through parliament. But Hernando rejected any possibility of changing them. The budget will be debated today in the Senate, but the PP has already refused to alter them at all, meaning they will be definitively approved next week in Congress.
The commissioner has not acted with prudence, and has been swept along by his Socialist affiliation” PP spokesperson Rafael Hernando
Hernando went even further by stating that the EC report refers to accounts for Spain’s autonomous regions and municipal councils, which, he said, are governed by the Socialist Party (PSOE) and emerging left-wing anti-austerity party Podemos. He also stated that the real risk of failing to meet the deficit targets is directly related to whether or not the Popular Party continues to hold power after the December 20 general elections.
The PP spokesperson described Socialist politicians Jordi Sevilla and Miguel Sebastián as “shameless,” given that, he argued, they are complaining about the deficit but were the ones who left Spain a terrible situation, in reference to the previous administration of PSOE Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero (2004-2011).
English version by Simon Hunter.
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