Govt. submits plan for full 6 month alarm for vote on Thursday 29th October
The Council of Ministers (Cabinet) have confirmed their plan to submit a vote to Congress this Thursday 29th October for a straight six months of State of Alarm. The submission includes the removal of a Nationwide curfew to allow autonomous regions to manage any curfew on a local level.
The Government is confident it has the votes they need to ensure a simple majority needed to win a vote for a clear six month State of Alarm without the support of the Partido Popular who have offered their support only if the State of Alarm is restricted to 8 weeks. There is an indication that the authorities in Cataluña would like the power to impose weekend home confinement orders, something not provided for under the State of Alarm currently.
The final wording will become apparent on this coming Thursday after the horse trading is completed.
Draft National Budget announced
The Government have proposed increases on wealth tax, personal income tax and corporate tax after exhaustive negotiations with Podemos.
Personal wealth tax is proposed to increase 3% for capital income over 200,000€ and 2% for income from work over 300,000€.
Large businesses will pay an increase in corporate tax and wealth tax for assets in excess of 10 million euros. Companies listed with a minimum of 5million euros in share value will have a minimum tax rate of 15%.
Private pension allowances will be reduced.
Expenditure was announced as a path to reject austerity and the "largest social investment in history" is trumpeted as 239,000 million euros including EU loans will be "channeled" into a recovery plan to be presented at the end of the month.
Headline announcements include an increase in 70.2% for education spending and similar figures for Science and green transition budgets. What this translates as in practice is unclear but the rhetoric surrounds commitment to decarbonisation of the Spanish economy.
Thus, the "response of the Budgets will be at the height of the impact" suffered by the covid.
Housing, Industry, Agriculture are also earmarked for eye watering headline figure increases alongside a 5% increase in the benefit threshold. Civil service pensions and salaries will increase by 0.9%.
3,064million euros are earmarked for health (including COVID vaccine purchases) and 3,107million euros for the minimum vital income provision.
Monies allocated to the fight against equality will be increased by 60 million euros.
Spain receives huge loans from the EU
The European Union have sanctioned the first of the much vaunted aid packages for Spain. 6,000 million euros have been green lit for support with the Spanish ERTE scheme. This money has been made available as a loan despite the Spanish government boldly announcing only a week ago that they would only make use of grants and not increase debt obligations by taking on board loans.
This has obviously been reversed with the announcement by Ursual Von Der Leyen today.
Aragón confirm cost of fines
The local authority have published their guidance for sanctions to be issued to people breaking curfew orders in the region. Minimum fines for breaking perimeter confinement of the city or curfew will be fined a minimum €300.
The rest of the sanctions issued by the Minister of Health, Sira Repollés, are as already understood: at least 300 euros for not wearing a mask or making an inappropriate use of it (600 if it is in an enclosed area or in large groups), at least 3,001 euros for breaking isolation if positive, at least 3,001 euros for failing to comply with the capacity or hours in establishments or activities and at least 300 euros for drinking in the street (600 in the case of large groups).
Aragón Border closure and amendments to local restrictions
The Aragónese Regional Government have announced the closure of the local borders. People can no longer travel into or out of Aragón for 15 days without exceptional justification.
Bars & restaurants in Industrial estates have been permitted to open for workers on the estate as have Service stations for transport sector workers. Both to a capacity of 50%
Dog walkers disappointed
It has been confirmed that the current curfew restrictions also apply to dog walkers. Exercise for your four legged friend is not considered an exceptional circumstance to justify breaking the curfew.