Spain's parliament will hold on Thursday what is expected to be a tight vote on whether to approve the government's plans to shave 15 billion euros off the fiscal deficit with measures including salary cuts for public workers and pension freezes, according to Reuters. The government is expected to see its proposals approved with a narrow majority, but voting will be tight since the Basque Nationalists said on Wednesday they will side with the main opposition Popular Party and oppose the cuts. The vote is expected at 1100 GMT. Spain's Socialist government's 169 seats do not give it an absolute majority in Spain's 350 seat lower house so it needs support or abstentions from opposition parties to pass measures. It is expected that Catalan centre-right CiU nationalist party's ten members will abstain, allowing the government to narrowly pass the measures despite widespread opposition. The austerity plan had been introduced through a decree, meaning it has already gone on to the statute books. The government's plan aims to save an additional 15 billion euros and includes wage cuts of 5 percent for civil servants this year. It aims to cut the budget deficit to 9.3 percent of gross domestic product this year and then to 6 percent in 2011, down from 11.2 percent last year.
