The Basque socialists are aware that the Basque campaign is entering a decisive week and, this time, the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, has entered the Basque agenda, flagging the concern about the high cost of housing, one of the campaign themes. Sánchez has committed this Saturday in San Sebastián to convert the current mandate into the “housing legislation”, which will be “the main objective of the Basque administrations and the general administration of the State.”
If a week ago, in Vitoria-Gasteiz, Pedro Sánchez barely entered into the issues of the Basque campaign, this Saturday, at a time when the campaign faces its decisive phase, the socialist leader has chosen to take a step forward, addressing to one of the great concerns of Basque citizens, especially among young people, an issue that obviously also worries beyond the Basque territory.
In an event at the Tabakalera International Center for Contemporary Culture, before about 800 people, Sanchez promised that “what today represents an unrealizable dream will be a palpable reality.” In this sense, he maintained that “it will multiply the housing policy by eight.” “, until it becomes “the fifth pillar of the welfare state.”
To achieve this, it has appealed to the alliance between city councils, provincial councils, the Basque Government and the Government of Spain. “If there is a political party that can carry it out, it is the PSOE, it is a government led by the socialists in Spain and also in Euskadi,” he indicated.
One of the characteristics of the campaign is that it is not leaving the Basque agenda, aligned with the issues that appear among the first concerns of citizens: quality of employment, situation of the Basque Health System-Osakidetza, housing, economic problems, situation of public services, citizen insecurity…
In an act aimed at supporting the PSE candidate for Lehendakari, Eneko Andueza, Sánchez has embraced the issue of housing, a portfolio managed by the socialists themselves in the Basque Government, although he has not entered into the other major issues that mark the campaign. , something that has been left for the head of the socialist list himself.
Pedro Sánchez, however, has taken the opportunity to appeal to the trust of the 292,000 Basques who voted for him in the general elections in July last year, giving victory to the socialists. The dual vote, not in vain, leads many Basques to vote in one direction in the general elections and in another, different way, in municipal elections or elections to the Basque Parliament.
The forecasts for the next 21st place the PSE very far from that volume of votes, remaining within a range of between its current 10 seats and a maximum of 12. Furthermore, the growing bipartisan perspective of Basque politics, with this struggle between the PNV and EH Bildu in the focus, does not favor the socialists, who will have a relevant role starting on post-election Monday. In their hands will probably be the key to governability, a factor that they have made the axis of their campaign, with the motto ‘Vote whoever decides’.
At this point, both Andueza and Sánchez have insisted on the PSE’s ability to guide and condition the policies of the Basque Government, in the past and starting on the 22nd.
Beyond the Basque agenda, Pedro Sánchez has attacked the president of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo. According to him, in international politics the former president José María Aznar and the president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, are leading the way. While in national politics, he criticized that it is Ayuso and the leader of Vox, Santiago Abascal, who tell him what he should do, so that the PP project is “nothing and mud.”
Sánchez has accused the PP and Vox of starting the “mud machine” that involves “reporting cases that are as scandalous as they are non-existent, to muddy the public debate, muddy it and generate disaffection.”
Faced with this, the leader of the PSOE has stated that the socialists “what we are going to do is place, as we have always done, citizens at the center of our concerns and occupations” and, for this reason, he has stressed that they are going to ” continue working for coexistence, as we are also going to work for the progress of our citizens.”
Finally, Sánchez has insisted once again on the good health of the Spanish economy. According to him, “two international organizations not at all suspected of Sanchismo” such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the AIREF “have raised the forecasts for economic growth in our country.”
Thus, he has claimed that this confirms that in Spain, “during this very difficult, complex year that we are experiencing, as a consequence of the geopolitical context that Europe has suffered since Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and now with the Middle East on fire as a consequence of what is happening in Gaza, we are growing five times more than the European average.
