United We Can parliamentary spokesman Pablo Echenique regretted that the State of the Nation deliberations showed that the conservative People’s Party (PP) was not moderate, and lamented that the “right wing is foaming at the mouth yelling ETA to try to cover up democratic advances ».
He referred to the matter of the Democratic Memory Bill, which, despite being due to be passed in Congress this Thursday, has become the PP’s spearhead to continue blocking the judiciary, which it has been doing for the past three and a half years.
“As a moderator and as a state party, the PP has what I have as a footballer. Alberto Núñez Feijóo’s PP has been trying all along to talk about a terrorism that, fortunately, has not existed in this country for more than a decade,” Echenique told the press in the House of Commons.
On the other hand, he acknowledged that the bloc United We Can (Izquierda Unida y Podemos), an ally of the Socialists in government, favorably values the debate on the State of the Union and directly pointed out that the head of the executive, Pedro Sánchez , and his party called for a “natural reorientation” with “progressive and courageous measures”.
In any case, Echenique reiterated his group’s refusal to increase Spain’s defense budget to 2% by 2029, a pledge to NATO.
Sánchez launched a series of initiatives on Tuesday that he later defended in his speeches the day before. It met with support and enthusiasm from its partners on the one hand, and criticism from the opposition PP and the entire conservative wing of the Iberian country on the other. Local media and numerous analysts believe that the chief executive has donned the suit furthest to the left of his party’s own Social Democracy (PSOE, socialist), which pleases the bloc that accompanies him in Moncloa de Unidas Podemos.
Sánchez announced that he would introduce temporary special taxes for electricity companies and financial institutions that will generate seven billion euros (dollars) in revenue in 2023 and 2024 and help Spain deal with inflation.
He argued that taxes will be introduced for “the big financial institutions that are already beginning to benefit from the rise in interest rates”.
mem/ft