Page 8 - ARUBA TODAY

A8 WORLD NEWS
Monday 24 deceMber 2018

Italian Senate OKs budget, tweaked to satisfy EU concerns

By FRANCES D’EMILIO budget law at 3 a.m. with Maio promised a minimum
Associated Press a 167-78 vote. Three sena- income of up to 780 euros
ROME (AP) — After a rau- tors abstained and dozens (nearly 900 dollars) a month
cous marathon session, the weren’t present for the to those who agreed to
Italian Senate early Sunday vote. look for work and undergo
approved a national bud- The budget also incorpo- job training.
get law that was tweaked rates the promise by Di The revised budget has sig-
after the European Union Maio’s fellow deputy pre- nificantly less funding ear-
objected to plans by Italy’s mier, Matteo Salvini of the marked for the guaranteed
populist government to sat- “Italians First” League par- income and eased pension
isfy expensive campaign ty, to enable Italians to re- rules than the amount in
promises with a large defi- tire at younger ages. the version Italy first submit-
cit. The government’s budget ted to Brussels. But the costs
The budget, which was re- isn’t “based on philosophy are sizeable enough that
vised by the government or on finance, but regards Premier Giuseppe Conte’s
so the European Union The protest of “Forza Italia” party’s senators during the discussion everyday lives,” Salvini said. government has proposed
wouldn’t trigger sanctions, before the vote of confidence on the budget law in the Senate Both leaders want to keep new revenue sources to
faces a Dec. 31 deadline of the Republic, in Rome, Saturday, Dec. 22, 2018. supporters happy, ahead cover them.
for final approval in the Associated Press of European Parliament The measures include taxes
lower Chamber of Depu- in the 2019 budget would jobless or underemployed elections in spring 2019. on higher-end, less energy
ties. allow the coalition govern- Italians. The 5-Star Movement tri- efficient cars, on digital
Deputy Premier Luigi Di ment to fulfill its pledges “There are things that umphed in this year’s elec- services, and on nonprofit
Maio, who heads the eu- early in the year. They in- should make us proud,” Di tion thanks in large part to groups, as well as slash-
roskeptic 5-Star Move- clude rolling back pension Maio said a few hours after votes from the south, where ing pensions that surpass
ment, assured supporters changes and guarantee- Parliament’s upper cham- unemployment among 100,000 euros ($114,000) a
via Facebook that funding ing a minimum income for ber endorsed the revised youth hits 50 percent. Di year.q

Spanish PM: Consensus

only way to resolve

Catalonia crisis

By JOSEPH WILSON
Associated Press
BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Spain’s prime minister said in
an interview published Sunday that only a solution sup-
ported by a large majority of Catalans and legal under
the Spanish Constitution will resolve the crisis over wheth-
er the Catalonia region should secede or remain part of
Spain. Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez told the Barcelona-
based newspaper La Vanguardia that what “is needed
is a wide consensus that right now doesn’t exist in Cata-
lonia.” Voters in the wealthy northeastern region were
evenly split in supporting parties for and against seces-
sion when the last regional election was held a year ago.
However, the separatist politicians who prevailed in that
vote and the previous Catalan election insist on pursuing
a break with the rest of Spain.
While Catalonia’s regional government wants a binding
referendum on independence, Sanchez is urging them
to work with counterparts who favor unity with Spain on
drafting a new charter law for the region, one that signifi-
cantly more than half of the region’s 7.4 million residents
would support. Sanchez has not detailed what he would
like a new charter for Catalonia to look like.
“We have always said that we can find a solution to the
Catalan political crisis within the Constitution,” Sanchez
said. “But the problem is not independence, it is about
harmonious coexistence.”q