A golden rule for capping debt

Published on 24 August 2011 at 12:08

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Following Hungary, Spain is preparing to introduce a “golden rule” of balanced budgets in its Constitution: the PSOE (Socialists) and PP (right-wing opposition) “agree to reforming the constitution without a referendum” [leads Público](http:// http://www.publico.es/espana/392772/psoe-y-pp-pactan-limitar-el-de-cit-en-la-constitucion) the day after the government announced it will write the public deficit ceiling into Basic Law. It’s a step “demanded by Germany,” writes the Madrid daily, which believes that the government of José Luis Zapatero wants to “calm the markets” and show that “the deficit problem will not come up again.” The “golden rule” will bend before exceptional events, such as natural disasters or “severe recessions”, and the principle behind it was immediately backed by the opposition leader, Mariano Rajoy. From 2018 the debt ceiling will rise to 0.40 percent of GDP, “a formula adopted by Germany two years ago [Berlin will limit its deficit to 0.35 percent of GDP from 2015] and being mulled over by other countries like France.”

Público regrets, however, that the measure is not being submitted to a popular vote. On its front page, it publishes the hashtag #yoquierovotar (‘I want to vote’) which is being launched over on Twitter by the “thousands of citizens mobilising via social networks” to demand a referendum. “The Socialists and the Conservatives hold the key,” however, “and the government is in a hurry,” the paper concludes.

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