In the Congress of Deputies these days there is a continuous noise because of nuclear energy. Tomorrow the Senate amendments to the Sustainable Mobility Law and there is one that is attracting much of the attention: the one that would extend the life of the Almaraz (Cáceres), Ascó (Tarragona) and Cofrentes (Valencia) nuclear power plants.
The Government’s parliamentary partners, and even the PSOE coalition partners, are asking Moncloa to do everything possible to block this amendment. However, socialist sources of various kinds confirm that in the party It is already assumed that the amendment will go ahead And, they say, they can’t do anything about it. The life of the plants is going to be extended, contrary to the calendar agreed by the Government with the companies.
The conflict began in the Senate. When the law arrived there from Congress, the PP took advantage of its absolute majority to introduce the amendment. Besides because the party of Alberto Núñez Feijóo is in favor of the extension, the popular ones are aware of the complexity of the nuclear debate for the PSOE and sought to harm.
On the one hand, because the socialists agreed with Sumar in their investiture agreement that the plants would be closed, but now the Government of Pedro Sanchez seems open to renegotiating the calendars with the energy companies, which is bringing out the contradictions within the Executive, straining relations and angering the rest of the left-wing partners. But also, because it generates internal debates within the PSOE itself. While ministries such as the Ecological Transition defend the closure, in territories such as Extremadura – where elections are held on December 21 – the socialists are in favor of keeping them open because of the jobs they generate. To all this we must add a parliamentary level of attrition, since the amendment will allow us to see how some investiture partners abandon Sánchez and the Government will see its rule amended without being able to avoid it, because they do not have a majority.
Yesterday, several partners asked the Government to use its right to veto to overturn the nuclear amendment. He Treasury can veto those initiatives that entail an increase in budget spending or a decrease in income. And this extreme is something that the Government itself studied, but yesterday at noon various PSOE sources already recognized that this scenario was not going to be possible, because they did not see that they could justify that it would affect a specific budget item.
With this route dead, the socialists assume that they will have to vote on Thursday and that they will not be able to trust the investiture majority to overthrow it. Mainly, because of the two Catalan parties. Both ERC and Junts have been in favor of extending the life of nuclear power plants in the past and this is because Catalonia is the autonomous community that accumulates the most plants in all of Spain and the mayors of the municipalities adjacent to them are putting a lot of pressure on the leadership of the parties, due to the jobs that are put at risk if they are closed.
In the PSOE there is some discomfort with CKD and they do not trust that the party of Oriol Junqueras will remain on the side of the left bloc in the vote. “Everyone here is very left-wing, until you have to vote on something that affects your territory,” a socialist leader insults the Republicans. The PSOE believes that the most likely scenario is that the ERC abstains, which would complicate the numbers to overthrow it because the potential no bloc decreases. In fact, Congress already voted months ago on a non-law proposal from the PP on nuclear energy and it prospered, in part, thanks to the fact that ERC abstained. The other party in the investiture bloc that abstained from this non-legal proposition was Together. The formation of Carles PuigdemontHe has been defending nuclear energy for months, although not openly, and the Government believes that they could end up voting in favor of the amendment. The socialists suspect that they could even do it to show that they are serious about slamming the door on the Government and forcing them to experience a parliamentary defeat.