“It is a good agreement for Catalonia and a good agreement for Spain.” The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, expressed himself with these words on Tuesday when asked about the agreement signed between the PSC and the ERC to put the socialist Salvador Illa as president and that includes a kind of economic agreement like the Basque one, so that Catalonia controls all its taxes. According to him, the pact, which he described as “extraordinary news”, includes a “commitment to interterritorial solidarity, to the cohesion of public services and to the equality of Spaniards.”
Sánchez spoke these words in Palma, where he held the traditional summer audience with the king. The meeting at the La Almudaina palace took place just a few hours after the head of the executive branch met on Tuesday morning accepted his right not to testify in Moncloa, where Judge Juan Carlos Peinado was going to take a statement from him as a witness in the ongoing investigation against his wife, Begoña Gómez.
Just a few minutes after Peinado's visit to Moncloa it was announced that the Public Prosecutor's Office, representing the institution of the presidency of the government, had presented a proposal complaint of pampering against Peinado, since he knowingly and deliberately made an unfair decision by preventing Sánchez from testifying in writing.
But in his appearance in Palma, Sánchez did not want to refer to the statement for Peinado or the complaint he filed against him out of respect for the king. He will comment on it on Wednesday at the press conference in which he will take stock of the political course.
Sánchez has focused on defending the pact with the ERC, which, as he said, “opens a new stage in Catalan politics, where different parties have reached an agreement.” The head of the executive has assured that the pact with the Republicans “has the unanimity of the federal executive” with almost “unanimous” support, with only one abstention.
And he wanted to downplay the relevance of the regional financing reform, about which he did not give details. “The important thing is that governments, both at national and regional level, believe in the power of public services,” he concluded. In this sense, Sánchez said that he will not accept “any lesson” regarding the PP, “which is cutting public services.”
Call for “respect and recognition towards ERC”
When asked about the criticism that the socialist ranks had made of the agreement, Sánchez claimed that “as secretary general of the PSOE, I have had the unanimous support of the Federal Executive Commission.” In the same way, he expressed his “deep respect” for ERC “after six complex years on the social level.” For this reason, he stressed that the aim of this agreement is to “normalize politics in Catalonia” with an “ally” that will put an end to “the legalization of more than a decade by the process.” “Respect and recognition towards ERC,” the president stressed. “We must respect the legitimate decision of ERC. The PSOE is absolutely excellent with the consultation on Friday. This means that there will be no electoral repetition,” he said.
In this regard, he stressed that the agreement “talks about health, education and public services, which must be a hallmark.” Likewise, he praised the current regional financing system after the Spanish “suffered the greatest cuts due to the neoliberal response of the PP.” Sánchez stressed that the government has made “the greatest progress” possible. “The most important thing is that there are national and regional governments, regardless of the financing system, and that we work on the strength of public services,” he added.
On this point he has stated that he will not accept “any lesson from the PP about equality between Spaniards and the commitment to the welfare state”. The agreement reflects a commitment to interterritorial solidarity, which is the hallmark of the government. Not in vain has he pointed out that in the last seven years in which he has been president, the CCAA has received 3 billion euros more than during the seven years that the popular government of the popular Mariano Rajoy has governed, which has left the dependency system in decline. health, education, vocational training and social services. “Unfortunately, we suffer from governments that open the doors to the privatization of education and health, but that is the responsibility of these autonomous communities”, he added.
“The PP has assimilated the far-right discourse on immigration”
On the other hand, when Sánchez was asked about the meeting he is currently holding with the President of the Balearic Government, Marga Prohens (PP), and about the position of the island government regarding the reception of unaccompanied minor migrants, he criticized, in reference to the popular people, that when it comes to receiving Ukrainian refugees “there is no problem”. In this sense, he recalled that Spain has welcomed more than 215,000 Ukrainians, most of whom are minors. “If they come from other parts, it seems that there are governments that do not have the same commitment”, he stressed, claiming that “this shows how the PP has assimilated the far-right discourse on immigration.”
Finally, he recalled that the CCAA “has the same responsibility towards minors. We are asking for this solidarity quota,” said Sánchez, who considered that “it is still contradictory” that the PP makes different speeches on the issue, depending on whether it is in the Canary Islands or not, in order to “ultimately block the reforms” of the immigration law and “The problem still exists.” “Let them abandon Vox's erroneous positions on immigration and arrive at the mandatory obligation of solidarity,” he called on the conservatives.
The Conference of Presidents in Cantabria
On the other hand, the President has announced that the next Conference of Presidents will be held in Cantabria and that the main topic to be discussed will be housing. After the Community of Madrid appealed to the Supreme Court against the head of the executive for not having convened it, and after other communities under the PP announced that they would follow the same steps, Sánchez has defended that he is the President who has convened the most conferences, with “more than twenty”, while his predecessor, Mariano Rajoy, “was lazy”.
The Socialist leader has indicated that the “fundamental” issue of the next meeting will be the housing policy that all governments must implement, “especially the autonomous communities.” However, he has assured that he will convene this body, in which the central government will meet the presidents of the autonomous communities, and start working on its organization as soon as the summer is over, in the month of September.
Sánchez denies that there was a lack of political will and claims that in recent years there have been successive elections that have prevented its implementation. Thus, he explained that on 28 May 2023 there were first regional and municipal elections, then general elections and then the investiture process. Then, he continued, the elections were held in Galicia, then in Euskadi and later in Catalonia. At this point, he indicated that the regional governments must first be formed before the conference can be held. “We are talking about very important governments, those of Galicia, those of Euskadi and those of Catalonia,” he stated.