MADRID, May 23 (Xinhua) -- The Spanish government has assured on Wednesday the passing of the 2018 General State Budget after gaining the support of the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) at the Congress of Deputies.
Thanks to the PNV support, the ruling PP obtained 176 votes to pass the budget, which will also be discussed at the Spanish Senate.
Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said "it has been difficult but all of those who supported the budget have done what they had to do", highlighting that political parties supporting the budget had chosen to build instead of destroying.
The five MPs of the Basque party had rejected to support the budget if the Spanish government continued to apply the article 155 of the constitution in the country's northeastern region of Catalonia.
A PNV spokesman said on Wednesday afternoon that they would support it in the end because the implementation of the article 155 in Catalonia had an "expiration date".
Wednesday also saw the European Commission (EC) back the Spanish 2018 budget, although warning that the country's fiscal deficit would be at 2.7 percent this year, 0.1 percentage more than the figure previously predicted. In general, the EC said the budget fulfilled the criteria of the Stability and Growth Pact.
