The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, assures that he is embarking on his long-awaited first trip to China “very satisfied” with the course of recent political events in Spain, after the fiasco of Vox’s motion of no confidence, the continuous slippages that Moncloa attributes to Alberto Núñez Feijóo and the guarantee that a parliamentary majority will validate his pension reform this Thursday in Congress. In an informal conversation with the press who is accompanying him on this official visit to China, Sánchez especially celebrated having managed to carry out these “high-voltage reforms”, both labor and pensions, with absolute “social peace”, which He considers “a very important political asset.” “The pension reform was one of the legislature’s match balls, which also triggered the disbursement of European funds, and we have achieved it. Both the pensions and the labor are two reforms that justify a legislature”, highlighted the president.
For Sánchez, having achieved these “core” reforms, with the endorsement of the European Commission and without social response, is an “undeniable success” of the coalition government between the PSOE and Unidas Podemos, despite its parliamentary minority. And this is, in his opinion, the great value of the progressive coalition Executive, despite its usual internal frictions. The head of the Executive also understands that the only alternative to a possible alliance of the PP and Vox is the reissue of the government coalition between the PSOE and the political space to its left that Vice President Yolanda Díaz is now trying to strengthen before the next general elections. And he therefore hopes, to begin with, that Díaz reaches an agreement with Podemos. Sánchez’s claim is, thus, “to reach the end of the legislature with the coalition”, then “to vindicate the action of the Government” before the appointment with the polls, as the best “political asset”. And finally, if they give the numbers, “reissue the coalition” to face another four-year term like the current one.
Sánchez assures that he sees himself in a position to achieve it, in a scenario of parliamentary fragmentation in which it will already be very difficult, if not impossible, to see absolute majorities again. “Citizens have understood that we are going to go to coalition government formulas. There will be no other one”, admits the president. And, given this perspective, he considers that he has an advantage: “The left has a much more competitive candidacy than the right in the coalition formulas,” he underlines. In other words, he understands that the PSOE has much more capacity to form a government coalition and add allies in the parliamentary arc than the PP, which would only have the possibility of agreeing, in his opinion, with the extreme right of Vox.
Sánchez insists in any case on defending this “first experience of a coalition government in an unprecedented context”, with the pandemic and now a war that leads to an uncertain scenario. “It is the first time that there has been an understanding between the different lefts”, highlights the president. And he lists what, in his opinion, are his three main achievements: “We have guaranteed political and economic stability. We have been effective in management. And we have achieved it with social peace”. All this is what he assures that he is going to claim in the electoral campaign, to begin with, for the next municipal and regional elections.
This Sunday, without going any further, Sánchez will participate in an act of the PSC in L’Hospitalet. The president considers that “time is giving the reason” to his commitment to coexistence in Catalonia. “It’s a winning bet,” he points out. And he contrasts it with the internal discrepancies that, in his opinion, keep the independence movement fractured. Sánchez downplayed the fleeting return to Barcelona of former Minister Clara Ponsatí – “the image defines itself” – which he interprets as the key to an electoral struggle between Junts and Esquerra. “But they are issues of the past, in any case. Citizens are already on something else, ”he warns. And despite the fact that he acknowledges that municipal elections are always very close in Barcelona, ??he claims to trust in the success of the socialist candidate, Jaume Collboni. “I really believe in Collboni’s chances,” he stressed.
