The Spanish government continues playing with fire. Yesterday in congress it once again softened a reform. Intending to get enough votes to broach a new collective bargaining framework, which would demand abstentions from PNV and CiU, the government ceded to Basque nationalists and agreed to sacrifice one of the only advances that would have come out of the new plan: the primacy of a state industry agreement.
The PNV asked that regional collective agreements get priority over federal agreements, which complicates the situation further. Farewell to any market cohesion and the potential for an agreement that could detangle serious issues, diminish bureocracy and increase flexibility in the Spanish labor market.
From now on, if any conflict exists between federal and regional governments, the second would have more power. This result exemplifies the thoughtlessness of parliament politics.
Edited in English by Brandon Dyches and Jose L. De Haro (joseluisdeharo@eleconomista.es)
