Podemos returns to the charge against the Ibex. This time, in the form of a dividend tax. This morning, the spokesperson for Podemos, María Teresa Pérez, announced that the purple formation will present a initiative to set an extraordinary rate so that Ibex 35 companies pay the State 50% of what they distribute in dividends.
To justify the proposal, the spokesperson pointed out that companies listed on the stock market in our country have distributed a record amount in dividends. Specifically, a total of 40,000 million euros in 2024. Money that is part of the profit obtained by the companies and that has been distributed among the shareholders.
“A few days ago Pedro Sánchez said that Spain was the best economy in the world. Yes, but the best economy for the rich, not for the poor,” Pérez reproached.
For this reason, Podemos wants large companies to contribute half of those profits to the State through a new extraordinary rate. In the case of 2024, the amount would rise to 20,000 million euros. That money, Pérez added, It would be invested in public services and would serve to distribute wealth “somewhat more fairly.”
Furthermore, Pérez recalled that “it is increasingly common for the working class not to be able to pay the rent or the mortgage in Spain.” “The shopping basket has become more expensive by almost 30% in recent years and salaries have not risen that much,” she lamented. And meanwhile, the representative of the ‘purple’ party said, “the rich who have invested their money in shares of Ibex companies, they have been lining their pockets”, through record profits distributed in the form of dividends.
Threatens to knock down Budgets
Podemos’s claim comes just a few days before the vote for the extension of the tax on extraordinary profits of energy companies, which has been in force since 2023. The tribute will be voted on this Wednesday in Congress; However, the expectation is that it will not go ahead due to the lack of votes from Junts and PNV.
The socialists had committed to Podemos to approve the tax on extraordinary profits; In exchange, the ‘purple’ formation would support the fiscal package that was approved in Congress at the end of 2024. Today, Podemos threatens not to support the Budget if the Government does not comply with its pact and calls Sánchez “Repsol’s puppy”.
“It doesn’t matter if there are finally budgets or not, because the one who is going to overthrow this legislature is the PSOE due to its inaction,” said the purple leader this Monday at a press conference, who criticized that instead of a “change of course “to undertake left-wing policies for people who perceive just the opposite.
For example, he has attacked the “bipartisan agreement” with the PP, which is inclined to support the pension reform in the plenary session of Congress, which implies “delaying the retirement age” in order to have decent pensions. After emphasizing that Podemos is going to vote against the measure, he insisted that “it seems that it is the PSOE itself that is going to end up overthrowing this Government this term, precisely because of its turn to the right and its inaction.”