Daily Times

MADRID: Spain’s prime minister, at the head of a minority government, puts his 2017 budget to a parliamentary vote this week safe in the knowledge that he finally has the support of a majority of lawmakers.

This gives Mariano Rajoy considerable breathing space until 2019, as if he fails to get the necessary agreements for next year’s budget — due to be negotiated in the autumn — the constitution allows him to simply renew the previous spending plan. Presented in March after a long delay, the budget boosts social spending and moves away from the austerity that marked years of crisis in a bid to win opposition support, but Rajoy has nevertheless struggled to get a majority. Over the weekend, though, his government won the support of a lawmaker from the Nueva Canarias party in the Canary Islands — the last needed to get a majority of 176 lawmakers to pass the budget through in a vote this week.

After the vote, the text is due to be validated mid-June by the Senate, where Rajoy’s conservative Popular Party (PP) has a majority, after which it will finally be adopted eight months later than usual. Spain went through a difficult political year in 2016 as two inconclusive general elections left the country without a fully-functioning government for 10 months.