The PP and Vox have agreed to reduce by 100,000 euros the direct aid that the UGT and CCOO unions received for the development of equality plans, and to redirect that money to a new line of subsidies aimed at boosting employment in municipalities at risk of depopulation. Santiago Abascal's party, which demanded that the cut also extend to employers' associations, even announced that "50% of the initial amount they received" would be cut.
This change is included in an amendment of approach agreed upon by both parties and approved this Monday in the Economy, Budgets and Finance commission of Les Corts, within the framework of the debate on the accounts linked to the First Vice Presidency and the Ministry of Housing, Employment, Youth and Equality.
The amendment, which Europa Press has accessed, cuts 50,000 euros from each of the two lines of the subprogram Working Conditions and Administration of Labor Relations, aimed at promoting "the effective implementation in companies in the Valencian Community of equality plans, both mandatory and voluntary" and whose intended beneficiaries were both unions.
The total amount, 100,000 euros, is reassigned to a newly created item whose objective is to support "innovative business projects that generate employment and contribute to economic dynamism, population retention, and improved competitiveness in municipalities in the Valencian Community at risk of depopulation." Among the contemplated beneficiaries are self-employed individuals, SMEs, cooperatives, and companies that develop investment projects or launch new economic activity in these towns.
In relation to this decision, the general secretary of the PSPV-PSOE and Minister of Science, Diana Morant, criticized the PP before the media this Monday for having "completely bought into Vox's fascist agenda" by supporting their amendments and alluded, in particular, to the "stroke of a pen" elimination of union equality plans: "Once again their obsession against equality, against unions, once again their obsession reflected in racist amendments against migrants."
PP and Vox have shown full harmony on both Monday and Tuesday during the vote on partial amendments to the Generalitat's budget bill for 2026, endorsing all their cross-proposed initiatives and rejecting in block those presented by PSPV and Compromís. With this support, the 'popular' party assumes the national priority that Vox demands to approve the accounts in areas such as housing and social services.
Thus, this Tuesday they have approved, among other matters, an approximation amendment that explicitly incorporates among the objectives of the Family, Childhood and Adolescence program the promotion of "aid to Valencian families that can facilitate the upbringing and maintenance of children belonging to the family unit that follow the principle of national priority".