“It does not fall within the Spanish Constitution, nor any Constitution in the world.” Already on the last day of the electoral campaign, Pedro Sánchez has insisted on rejecting the holding of a referendum on self-determination, as claimed by ERC in Catalonia and EH Bildu in Euskadi, if he is re-elected as Prime Minister after 23-J. “It is an old debate on the political scene, which always brings out the right as a scarecrow to see if it can scare some PSOE voters, when in reality when those referendums have been held it has been with the Popular Party in government”, he warned, in an interview on TVE.
Sánchez has thus assured that his rejection of a referendum on self-determination, or the amnesty demanded by the Catalan independence movement, “is not a future”. He has thus warned that he has already shown since he arrived at Moncloa, five years ago, that both roads are blocked. And they will continue to be so if next Sunday he manages to revalidate the position for another four years. The PSOE leader has insisted on looking to the future, and not to debates, in his opinion, of the past. “Independence is an outdated ideology, from the political and efficiency point of view when it comes to being able to solve the serious and common problems that humanity has,” he argued.
Despite the fact that Alberto Núñez Feijóo focuses his campaign on denouncing Sánchez’s alliances with ERC and Bildu, the head of the Executive has insisted that “it is one thing to govern and another to agree on laws.” He has thus assured that the PP already governs in three autonomous communities with the extreme right of Vox, while he has agreed with the nationalist and pro-independence forces to approve advances in rights and freedoms, to revalue pensions or raise the minimum wage. And he has shown himself very willing to continue doing so in the next legislature: “There is no doubt in him,” he told his interviewers, Silvia Intxaurrondo and Marc Sala.
In this sense, and despite Feijóo’s attacks on this flank, Sánchez has given as an example that he is not attached to ERC and EH Bildu the impossibility of repealing the so-called Gag law of the PP in this legislature, despite the fact that it was one of his investiture commitments. “I have not given up”, he has affirmed about the claims of these independence formations. He has indicated in this way that, after reaching an agreement with Unidas Podemos, he was forced to negotiate with ERC and EH Bildu in search of a majority of 176 seats with which he could repeal the most harmful aspects of the PP’s citizen security standard, but that both parties “took the opportunity to incorporate other elements” into the negotiation.
And Sanchez said no. “I could not accept leaving the National Police unprotected,” the President of the Government assured.
But the leader of the PSOE has recommitted himself to repeal all the aspects that he considers most harmful of this law, if after 23-J he achieves a large parliamentary majority with the Sumar platform of Yolanda Díaz.
Sánchez has reiterated his conviction that this Sunday the PSOE will once again be the leading political force, in such a way that it can reissue a progressive coalition government with Díaz, as opposed to the “coalition government of lies” that he has attributed to the PP and Vox. “I aspire to win the elections, to govern in coalition with Yolanda Díaz’s party and to have a parliamentary majority large enough so that when the Council of Ministers approves the laws we will have to negotiate in Parliament, but not with 15 parties as we have had to do as a result of parliamentary fragmentation”, he pointed out.
The President of the Government has taken the opportunity to explain the three initiatives that he wants to promote “as soon as he is re-elected” after 23-J. The first is mortgage relief, so that the financial sector extends mortgages for all income of up to 37,800 euros per year for seven years, which would mean savings of 300 euros per month for these families. The second is the total free urban public transport for those under 24 years of age. And the third is to protect by law, as it already did with the increase in pensions according to the CPI, that the minimum wage is 60% of the average wage in Spain.
Sánchez has declared himself “encouraged” before the general elections next Sunday, after an electoral campaign in which “we have gone from less to more, it is evident.” The municipal and regional elections of May 28 have recognized that they were “a blow”, not because the PSOE suffered a serious electoral setback, but because of the great loss of territorial and institutional power it suffered. But now, his “particular diagnosis” is very positive: “The Popular Party is out of steam and the PSOE is coming back.” “The PSOE is in a position to win the elections and be the first political force,” he confided.
