J.P. Marín Arrese| Such is the slogan PM Pedro Sánchez trumpets time and again when confronted with any topic concerning the Spanish economy. Former VP Nadia Calviño used to provide a more reasoned approach than this self-complacent appraisal. Growth, while modest, ranks higher than other European countries, fuelling reasonable employment rates even in a sluggish environment. Prices, little by little, are coming under control. Excessive public deficit and indebtedness are…

Yesterday, Congress voted on three Decree Laws, to which the only thing to say was yes or no. The government saved two of them after agonising negotiations in which Junts, the party of the fugitive Puigdemont, obtained new and important concessions. These were: giving the Generalitat control of immigration; “shielding” the amnesty by annulling an article of a European directive that obliges the suspension of new laws that are questioned…

This was stated yesterday by Junts spokesman Josep Rius: “What we want is that these companies that have their majority activity in Catalonia have their headquarters in Catalonia,” he said, adding that “what we propose is to encourage the return of these companies, so that they can return with tax benefits, and those that do not do so but have greater activity in Catalonia should be penalised”. In exchange for…

The meeting to agree on the increase in the Minimum Wage (SMI) ended yesterday after barely an hour and a half of meeting between the Government and the social partners without any progress and with a climate clouded by previous threats to employers by the Secretary of State for Labour and Social Economy, Joaquín Pérez Rey. “If we do not reach an agreement around the figure of 4%, if the…

Fernando González Urbaneja | The legislature will be like a toothache for the Socialist Party, and the first tests of this will become apparent this week with the validation of the first decree-laws approved by the government, which require majority approval. Two of its allies, Podemos and Junts, have set preconditions for their approval, which is necessary for the government’s first decisions to come into force. Sánchez’s resistance manual, which…