Pedro Sánchez has had to overcome all sorts of adversities on his political path and has shown an unusual ability to keep track of things. At the end of 2023, he has overcome a test that seemed impossible: to continue after the catastrophe of the left on March 28 in La Moncloa, with an all-or-nothing campaign until the elections on June 23. After a term marked by the pandemic and the impact of the war in Ukraine, and now with a government in constant crisis (this Friday it will be announced who will replace Nadia Calviño, appointed President of the EIB, in the economy), Sánchez has boasted that Spain has become the largest growing European economy. “The Spanish economy has denied all the prophets of chaos. We have shown that we can grow with social justice (…) Today we have a more robust and better prepared welfare state. And with a clean government, without a trace of corruption,” was the triumphant conclusion at the end of the year, which Sánchez expressed without self-criticism, with a minimal reference to amnesty for those accused in the trial and with attacks on the law.
“We must begin a new phase of dialogue and normalization of the political situation in Catalonia. This includes the measures that we are taking at the level of the legislative power with the amnesty law and also the search for a meeting point between these maximalist proposals of independence. “Obviously the Spanish government does not support or accept a referendum on self-determination, which logically does not fit into the constitution,” the president has clarified the relationship with the independence movement, the most delicate front of all that La Moncloa has.
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Sánchez has limited the “unique financing” that President Pere Aragonès is calling for to the reform of the current regional financing system, which should have been updated in 2014: “We will talk to Catalonia and we will talk to each and every one of the autonomous communities of our country”. The Council of Ministers also approved the transfer of the management of the minimum income to all autonomies that request it. “In this way, they will be comparable to those of the regional regime that already had it,” emphasized Sánchez.
The renewal of the General Council of Justice (CGPJ), pending since December 2018 due to the veto of the PP (he has served for five years, according to the constitution, a full mandate), will be the key to the expected rapprochement between both PP and PSOE in State affairs, for which several loopholes for optimism have already opened after the meeting between Sánchez and Feijóo on Friday in Congress. “If the PP says no a thousand times, we will turn to the PP a thousand times. It is unacceptable that the CGPJ is experiencing a crisis due to the blockade of the PP, which does not recognize the legitimacy of the Cortes Generales. “It is imperative to renew the CGPJ in 2024 and if the PP considers it necessary for the European Commission to intervene, we will be happy,” Sánchez said of the suggestion Feijóo made to him that Brussels do so Negotiations between the two major parties should mediate to renew the panel of judges.
“We have two excellent commissioners, Didier Reynders and Vera Jourova, who know the situation. We will not miss any opportunity and opportunity to resolve an emergency,” stressed the president, who had no objection to the Justice Commissioner mediating between PSOE and PP, as Feijóo had suggested. Reynders has repeatedly defended the need to renew the CGPJ with the current law and then change the electoral system. The PSOE rejects the legal reform defended by the PP, which envisages that in future renewals the judges will elect the twelve members of the CGPJ directly and without the intervention of the Cortes. “Our absolute will is to reach an agreement. In these five years [de Gobierno] I made three agreements with the PP, two with Pablo Casado and one with Feijóo. “The three were unilaterally broken by the PP, there is no justification for that,” he explained.
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Sánchez, who sees that the entire legislative period in La Moncloa faces those who predict that it will be short or that he would even be tempted by a high-ranking position in international institutions, has the PP and Vox very keen on the excitement criticizes the PSOE for the amnesty law and for other events of recent days, such as the attack by Javier Ortega Smith, Vox councilor in the Madrid city council and national deputy, on Eduardo Rubiño, deputy speaker of Más Madrid in the capital. “There is asymmetric polarization; Here there are only people who insult and people who are insulted. Besieged parties and political leaders calling for the siege of these political forces. I commit that we will not give in to any of these disqualifications and that we will respond to the noise with more noise,” the President stressed. “The level of insults and disqualifications of the opposition in recent weeks is unacceptable. “It should be reprehensible that it should be said that a political leader likes fruit, that seems despicable to me and the low level that politics has left behind,” he concluded. The President of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, called him a “son of a bitch” when he took part in the debate about his insertion into Congress, although according to the first version of his team he had said: “I like fruit.” The conservative leader recanted her words on the congress platform and commented ironically during a speech to the Madrid assembly: “I like fruit, of course.” The PP of Madrid even gave away fruit baskets at its Christmas dinner, which Feijóo also attended.
Sánchez has Felipe VI. showed his “absolute respect” for his Christmas Eve speech, which was about defending the constitution and the unity of Spain. “He is the head of state and all citizens must see themselves reflected in his speech, no matter what they vote for. “On behalf of the PSOE, I have to say that we found ourselves in his speech,” the president said before heading to the Torrejón de Ardoz military base. This Wednesday and Thursday he will visit the Spanish troops stationed in Iraq.
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