Ignacio Marco-Gardoqui: A hit
Ignacio Marco-GardoquiCONTINUE
Updated: 06/25/2022 19:56h
Save
Related Reviews
The star measure adopted by the Government to combat price escalation,
the reduction to 5% of VAT on electricity, is a cosmetic measure that will ruin the coffers of the State and, in any case, will be insufficient to fix the problem of energy prices. Does it seem like a biased and excessively harsh judgment? Well, know that it's not mine, it belongs to the Third Vice President and I'm not the one to contradict her. When did she say it? Well, fifteen days ago in the Senate. What has happened in these two weeks so that what was previously insufficient suddenly becomes necessary and what was simply cosmetic becomes a measure of depth? The answer is simple:
the Andalusian elections that have overturned the political board.
The decision is not bad, I suppose, although its effects are limited. What does not have a pass is that she is a full Vice President of the Government and, precisely, the one in charge of energy affairs, who maintains that opinion, which was reaffirmed last Thursday in a public forum, when she added that "fiscal measures They won't fix the problem." Right, the question then is: who, how and when will she fix it? It is clear that most of the solutions are not in the hands of the Government. It cannot stop the war, nor get the Arab countries or the United States to sell us the cheapest gas, although perhaps a more complete, calm and agreed position on the issue of Western Sahara would have been helpful.
If there is ever a right time to be angry with Algeria, this is certainly not it.
So the price subsidies have not worked -remember what happened with the famous 20 cents on fuel-; The tortuous mechanism designed to limit the price of gas has been a fiasco and now the vice president tells us that fiscal measures, which have always enjoyed great prestige in the population, are not going to fix anything. And then she will accuse me of pessimistic analysis. Well, look, this is a prodigy of optimistic speech. I would say that it is, rather, an acknowledgment of impotence.
We have another added problem. In traditional medicine, these messes are usually treated with a well-known medicine, which consists of distributing money among the injured. Well, it turns out that we don't have it on the shelves of our very poor pharmacy. The public coffers are exhausted and, despite this, we are going to have to expand our military spending, update pensions, cover the promises of new aid made yesterday and pay the extra cost of servicing the debt that is going to require the inevitable rise in interest rates that appear in the immediate future. The situation affects all countries, at least all Europeans, but the 'ant' countries have well-stocked shelves where money is stacked, but the 'cicada' countries have them emptier than Nicolás Maduro's supermarkets.
The bad thing is the resounding inability to solve the problem, which is not easy at all. But, the worst thing is that distressing feeling of improvisation, of lack of initiative to move pushed by the waves of an adverse situation. Surely you know the marine adage that says: "There is no favorable wind for those who do not know where they are going and have no direction". Well, that, the Government lacks criteria, it lacks solutions, it has no management capacity, it lacks initiative and it lacks definition. Where are we going like this? No idea. To a good port, surely not.
