“We have differences.” The leader of Sumar, Yolanda Díaz, has risen to the speaker’s platform of Congress in the investiture debate of Pedros Sánchez to make a demand for the action of the current coalition government in office, to put on the table some of the 230 measures that are included in the agreement to reissue this government, but also to give new duties to the president who will be inaugurated this Thursday. These are issues on which Sumar and the PSOE maintain disagreements, according to Díaz, and which the leader aspires to include in the agenda of the new executive.
They are demands in fiscal matters, in the field of regional financing, in the reduction of inequalities, poverty, and in matters of housing, according to the acting second vice president, which Pedro Sánchez did not overlook although he made an effort to place the discrepancies in a more technical than political area, so that above all political complicity would exude. But Díaz also did not spare mention of other issues on which both parties maintain disagreement, related to international relations, with particular mention of Palestine and the Sahara; but also in matters of immigration and infrastructure.
Yolanda Díaz began her intervention by defending the amnesty for the leaders of the process and attacking the policies of the right. The leader defined the measure of grace as a tool on the path of “reunion”, emphasizing that her formation has never changed her position with respect to Catalonia: “We are in the same place as always, we have no coherence problems. “We said no to DUI and 155, we said dialogue, dialogue and dialogue.” For the leader of Sumar, with the amnesty “democracy wins” and “the possibility of Catalonia being a solution for the whole of Spain.” So much for the references to the issue that has monopolized Sánchez’s debate with the rest of the groups, especially those on the right.
The acting vice president took it upon herself to praise the social progress achieved during the previous mandate and to review in broad strokes the measures that will occupy the time of the future executive this term. “It has been difficult for them to accept it but this will be the legislature of time, of life time” in which “the working day will be reduced without reducing salaries,” she summarized. And at this point she announced that along with this, another of the star measures in the workplace will be the reform of the labor statute and the status of the intern.
From here, Yolanda Díaz used what she would like to include in the new government’s agenda and that she has not been able to agree with the PSOE. “We want a fair tax system” and “we believe that the time has come to undertake a comprehensive reform of taxation in Spain.” At this point, the leader of Sumar noted the differences with her partner, but alleged that “it is not fair that 85% of the fiscal burden in our country comes from workers’ payrolls,” nor that health care and private education taxed at 0% VAT. “This cannot be paid for with people’s taxes,” she warned. In this folder, she also encouraged doing more against the 140,000 million euros that, according to her, the Spanish have in tax havens.
Another of the “challenges” that Díaz pointed out was that of reducing inequality. “We have differences in how to address inequality,” he said, particularly regarding the dependent child benefit (Sumar proposes granting 200 euros up to the age of 18). For the minister, this is the “most effective” measure and she promised to work to convince the partner of it. But, above all, “equality, mr. Sánchez, they have to be in taxes, in health care and public education,” she insisted, because “the dentist, the eye doctor and mental health cannot be a luxury.
Finally, Díaz admitted differences with the PSOE on housing. The leader warned the president that “50% of people with a rental contract are at risk of social exclusion,” and regretted that her partner “is committed to a failed measure,” in reference to the rental bonus, which Their judgment only increases prices.
Although in his reply, Sánchez acknowledged that “we are not identical formations,” he naturally dealt with the differences, putting first the service record of the progressive coalition government during the Covid pandemic and in its response to the consequences of the war in Ukraine. It was when Díaz took the floor again that he explained the rest of the matters in which there are discrepancies, and in which both parties have been involved in some of the bitterest controversies. To begin with, the war between Israel and Palestine.
“We have differences but we walk together and we are not wrong adversaries,” Díaz warned, but he immediately asked his partner “not to hesitate in Palestine” and to “do more” on this matter, such as supporting the embargo on the sale of arms. or sanctions against Israel.
Secondly, the leader of Sumar was more belligerent with the Sahara issue. “We are going to continue defending the Sahrawi cause and compliance with United Nations resolutions,” she warned. And then she introduced issues related to “human rights,” in particular, migration. “We saw the best image of Spain in Aquarius,” she recalled, and immediately warned that “we do not share the immediate returns” and “we are committed to ensuring that the 500,000 irregular people in our country have rights.”
Díaz did not forget about regional financing, a gauntlet that the president picked up when responding by assuring that a “fair” reform is necessary. The leader of Sumar pointed out this reform as the core of the “new territorial agreement” and called on Sánchez for “courage” to undertake it. “This must be the legislature, finally, of regional financing, because we must respond to the financing of the Valencian Community, Aragon, Andalusia, Extremadura…”.
Finally, he warned about the financial situation of the city councils, denouncing that “they cannot be the poor brothers of democracy”, and referred to the infrastructure to criticize that “it is not decent that in the 21st century the train has not arrived in Extremadura ”, a symptom that “the radial model is polluting and a failure.”
Díaz and Sánchez did not draw swords, quite the contrary. “We may have differences, but we are going to comply with the agreements, in a serene manner and we are going to show that tomorrow Spain is going to be more feminist, social, green, with more culture… We are going for more and it is for you,” concluded the vice president.
