Sumar has presented this Thursday an electoral program based on an income agreement, a deep tax reform, a change in the production model, through a linked energy and food transition, the commitment to create a large public housing park of two million housing and measures to deepen equality, with 10-week paid parental leave and a telephone to attend “men in crisis”, promoting a feminism of 99%, “an inclusive feminism”.
It was summed up by the program coordinator, MEP María Eugenia Rodríguez Palop, responsible for translating into the program the work of the 35 working groups of the last year that demanded a document of reasonable, achievable and possible measures, which seek to combat the campaigns “of the fear” and any temptation to “nihilism or cynicism”. “These are measures for the present and for tomorrow: we are already tomorrow.”
The spokesman for the campaign and vice president of the European Greens, Ernest Urtasun, explained the measures related to the change in the production model and the energy transition. He spoke of reinforcing green industrialization and the creation of green jobs, “squeezing industrial capacity in renewables” with new funds, the rehabilitation of buildings, especially public ones, and with sustainable food, to serve the primary sector in the face of the economic transformation of the rural environment. Sumar also aspires to tie Spain with the great European powers by having a public energy company.
In terms of Housing, presented by Alejandra Jacinto, number one of Podemos Madrid, in addition to deepening the actions of the housing law, improving the mechanisms for the declaration of stressed areas in terms of rent, the Sumar program proposes the achievement of a park of public housing for rentals whose weight has the possibility of acting on the prices of the sector, with the ambitious objective of reaching two million subsidized homes in 10 years.
The program proposes actions in markets affected by “unfair or non-competitive practices that endanger supplies”, such as housing, credit, electricity and water supplies and the basic food basket.
In foreign policy, Pablo Bustinduy, co-founder of Podemos and spokesman for Sumar, stressed that, in a world of globalized problems, such as the climate emergency, war or the pandemic, Spain must lead a reform of the current system of multilateralism and the rearmament of the European Union as a space of sovereignty capable of facing international challenges from the standpoint of autonomy and conflict prevention.
The philosopher Elizabeth Duval presented the program on feminism, equality and LGTBI rights, in which she opted for an inclusive feminism, “99% feminism” and focused on material issues, which alludes to a “care revolution ”, to the fight against material differences and the incorporation of men into the feminist battle. Among the measures included is the extension of paid parental leave to 10 weeks, the improvement of the resources of the organizations to fight violence and the incorporation of a hotline for “men in crisis”.
The Secretary of State for Social Rights and Secretary of Economy of Podemos, Nacho Álvarez, was in charge of presenting the economic program, based on a great income pact that alleviates the current productive composition, where business profits strangle economic growth and accentuate inequalities. In addition to the universal inheritance of 20,000 euros, Álvarez spoke of the bonus for households affected by the ECB’s interest rate policy, an improvement in the Minimum Interprofessional Wage, and a reconciliation challenge that includes reducing the working day, but rather reducing the salary. And all this goes through a great tax reform.
Álvarez referred to the proposal of the Círculo de Empresarios to extend retirement to 72 years. “This is not the time or the circumstances to discuss this now.” Álvarez recalled the pact of the coalition government to guarantee the financing of pensions. The other leg is the tax reform, which “the government partner has not wanted to address.” Álvarez claimed a minimum rate of 11% in corporate tax, which is linked to the European directive, to put an end to the “tax evasion we have” in large companies compared to SMEs and the self-employed.
