It was the former Vice President Carmen Calvo who established a distinction between the President of the Government and Pedro Sánchez to justify in November 2018 why the latter, once in La Moncloa, did not defend that what happened in Catalonia in 2017 represented a crime of sedition as he did before his arrival at the Presidency. Yesterday it was the President of the Government himself who acted as Pedro Sánchez. He drew a timeline between 2022 and 2016, then he was the former general secretary of the PSOE, to put the message of pressure from economic and media powers back on the table.
Six years ago these “pressures from economic and media powers” were to “not try to form an alternative government to Mariano Rajoy.” Now he is also receiving pressure, this time because his government, he wields, is “annoying, uncomfortable for certain economic interests, which have their political and media terminals”, due to the measures he is putting in place. For example, the next tax to tax the large profits of energy and oil companies, which will come into force on January 1, 2023, but which will affect the 2022 financial year.
Sánchez appeared yesterday in La Moncloa to capitalize in front of United We Can the anti-crisis plan approved by the Council of Ministers due to the energy crisis and the unstoppable rise in prices. A text that includes a help check of 200 euros for households with an income of less than 14,000 euros; a discount of up to 50% on the state-owned transport voucher (Renfe, Rodalies…) and 30% on the price of the transport pass in Autonomous Communities and local entities; a 15% rise in non-contributory pensions agreed with Bildu; the reduction of VAT on electricity from 10% to 5%; the limit on the increase in the rental price is extended…
It is an anti-crisis plan that stressed the government partners due to the differences between the scope of the measures to be applied, which provoked a negotiation until the last minute, even in the same meeting of the Council of Ministers, and whose blocking was left in the hands de Sánchez the final decision.
In the Government they knew the importance of this anti-crisis plan. Not only because of the unstoppable rise in prices suffered by Europe and Spain, but because, according to government sources, it was the first response of the left-wing coalition to the historic blow that this political space suffered in the elections in Andalusia. There was pressure, lights. And Sánchez took advantage of them to send a message to his own: resist, hold on, they are not going to knock us down. Staging of the head of the Executive with a socioeconomic background for the approved measures, but also with a political message.
The “interests” of the “economic powers of the State are not going to break us and the Government is going to continue defending the working middle class and, with words and deeds, it is going to make a fair distribution of burdens.”
In one of the most delicate moments of the legislature for the coalition, due to the depth of the crisis – “inflation is extraordinarily high,” Sánchez admitted-; due to the electoral results in Andalusia and due to the Feijóo effect that occupies and worries the Government, Sánchez appeals to his Resistance Manual, the book he wrote together with Irene Lozano shortly after coming to power, that “vital journey” accompanied by a «personal process of resilience, which would not be understood without the strength of his convictions». A resilience that he proclaims before those who, he says, intend to overthrow him, recovering the anti-system discourse with which he bid with Podemos to captivate the socialist bases in the primaries.
“It is a reality that we have been seeing for four years with the motion of censure and the formation of the coalition government. It is true that this government is beaten a lot by certain powers, but they must be aware that this is an autonomous government that serves who it serves, the working middle class of this country”, was the reflection that he wanted to leave as warning the President of the Government. All the “difficulties” that they recognize in La Moncloa that they are having to manage are not going to alter the roadmap.
In the Government they are aware that families, companies, the self-employed… are having a “fatal” time and that the crisis is causing more and more Spaniards to be in a vulnerable situation. According to INE data, in 2020 (taking into account 2019 income) the percentage of the population with income below the poverty risk threshold stood at 21.0% of the resident population in Spain, compared to 20.7 % from the previous year. These are the latest data available.
“We are very aware of the difficulties that families, companies and the industry face due to the escalation of prices,” Sánchez defended, weaving a speech that slipped social sensitivity and resistance against the system, against the powers that be. Another proof of this vindication of politics against the system was the defense made by the head of the Executive of the legal reform with which the PSOE wants to renew the Constitutional Court, given the blockade of the negotiations with the PP, and thus already achieve a majority progressive. He considers that the Judiciary “lacks legitimacy” since its mandate has expired for three years. “In the US, the judges have made a very controversial decision – to repeal the right to abortion. The judges make very important decisions and their governing bodies must have the maximum legitimacy, which is what the Judicial and Constitutional Powers do not have now, “he settled, blaming the PP for not agreeing to negotiate to renew them, blocking the CGPJ for three years.
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