MADRID (Reuters) -Spain’s decrease home has shelved a invoice that might have shortened the work week by 2-1/2 hours, dealing yet one more blow to the delicate Socialist-led minority authorities which is struggling to go the reforms it had pledged by way of a fragmented parliament.
In vote late on Wednesday, opposition lawmakers united with regional Catalan get together Junts towards the cornerstone laws championed by Labour Minister Yolanda Diaz and the principle commerce unions, stopping it from reaching the ground for debate.
Nonetheless, Diaz vowed to reintroduce the measure decreasing the cap on weekly work hours to 37-1/2 from the present 40 – or half an hour much less per day – and referred to as Junts’ veto “incomprehensible”.
Enterprise-friendly Junts, which seeks Catalonia’s secession from Spain however typically backs the central authorities, joined the conservative Folks’s Occasion and far-right Vox for a 178-170 majority.
Opponents argued that small companies and farmers could be unable to shoulder the upper prices derived from the coverage, resulting in job losses and jeopardising the welfare state.
This parliamentary defeat – the newest of a number of – comes as Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez courts events to assist him go a funds that’s greater than two years overdue whereas he tries to distance himself from corruption scandals which have dogged his third time period in workplace.
In 2023, Sanchez was sworn in as premier by a skinny margin with assist from pro-Catalan independence events ERC and Junts after hanging offers together with a contentious amnesty legislation for separatists, which sparked outrage and protests amongst many Spaniards.
Whereas the amnesty handed, the Supreme Court docket dominated it mustn’t apply to fugitive Junts chief Carles Puigdemont, and Sanchez has did not safe the get together’s assist in a number of key votes.
Corruption scandals, together with allegations that key members of his interior circle took kickbacks in trade for public works contracts, have dented the Socialist Occasion’s recognition amongst voters.
Assist for the socialists fell to 27.7% in September in comparison with 32.3% two years in the past as far-right get together Vox rose to 17.4% from 10.9% in the identical interval, based on a ballot by 40DB for El Pais.
(Reporting by Charlie Devereux and David Latona; Modifying by Inti Landauro and Kim Coghill)
