Spaniard Pedro Sánchez traveled to New York for the UN summit while his rival Alberto Núñez Feijóo is trying to unseat him. The incumbent prime minister, who seems convinced that he will succeed in his own investiture vote if Núñez Feijóo’s vote fails, has already begun to give an overview of his future political project. This Wednesday, at the opening of the Global Economy Forum for Latin America, the United States and Spain, Sánchez outlined the future priorities of his administration should he win the vote of confidence in Congress. His plans are to reinforce what his government has done over the last four years, with a particular focus on deepening the green and digital transition and tackling structural unemployment, a Spanish scourge that the politician wants to reduce by half . Sánchez, who belongs to the Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE), explained that although there are many political sectors – especially on the right and far-right – that talk about slowing down the ecological transition in the face of global economic difficulties, he is convinced that that Spain must expand and strengthen its position as a leading company in the field of renewable energies more quickly.
Political, business and educational leaders from both sides of the Atlantic met on Wednesday morning for Latin America, the United States and Spain at the Global Economy Forum at the Roxy Hotel in New York. EL PAÍS and the Spain-USA Chamber of Commerce organized the event, sponsored by Abertis, Baker McKenzie, Grupo Nutresa, Iberia, Inditex and Indra. The Organization of Ibero-American States for Education, Science and Culture (OEI) also took part in the forum. The meeting took place as the United Nations (UN) General Assembly met in the city this week.
Sánchez and EL PAÍS editor-in-chief Pepa Bueno opened the event. Bueno pointed out that the media has an obligation to address debates such as the fight against climate change. This, she argued, makes all citizens feel involved “in the challenges of green transformation and gender equality.” The editor further noted, “These are the two big changes that affect every aspect of our lives,” she concluded.
On Wednesday, Pepa Bueno, editor of EL PAÍS, spoke at the forum “Latin America, the United States and Spain in the global economy” at the Roxy Hotel in New York.LUCÍA VÁZQUEZ
Sánchez took advantage of the opportunity offered by the largely business-oriented forum to explain the broad outlines of his economic policies, complemented by clear data on the huge investments he plans to make in the coming years if he remains in power. Likewise, I expressed my confidence that, as in all international forums, Spain can establish itself as a model of modernity, progressive public policies and commitment to innovation, green economy and multilateralism, even if some sectors have questioned the feasibility of this.
“We have a clear roadmap that needs to be consolidated in the coming years,” explained Sánchez. “Spain leads the growth in the EU. Together with Belgium, we have the lowest inflation in the Eurozone at 2.4%. We will grow more than twice as fast as the EU average this year. And we will continue to do so in 2024. The labor market grew at a rate of 3% in August, particularly in high value-added sectors. Spanish labor reform has reduced temporary employment by half to 15%, in line with the European average. Structural unemployment will fall by half a million people by 2025. Exports increased by 24% in 2022. Despite enormous difficulties, Spain is weathering the inflation crisis better than other countries. Furthermore, we now know that Spain’s GDP was 20 billion euros, according to the Spanish Statistics Office (INE). [$21 billion] higher than we previously thought. The opposition claimed we would not get back to pre-pandemic GDP and now we know we have done it in 2022!” Sanchez said.
Reducing unemployment by half
The incumbent Prime Minister set out three priorities for his government’s future administration. First: “Maintain the country’s growth and modernization dynamics, do not use economic problems as an excuse, drive forward digital and ecological change, with a further 94 billion euros.” [$100 billion] in investments to complement the Spanish transformation plan. “We will advance in health, cybersecurity, defense, decarbonization and microchips.”
The second major element of his political project for the next four years is combating unemployment. “We have to break the lower limit of structural unemployment of 8% in our country. It is unacceptable. We are able to halve it through labor reform and bring it to European level. We will continue to modernize our vocational training. We also need to change the formulas for organizing work. The debate about the use of time is critical. We need to achieve a cultural change in work organization, with more flexible working hours to achieve a better work-life balance,” he argued.
Pedro Sánchez welcomes the forum participants.Lucía Vázquez
The third priority is the ecological transition. “There is no excuse. We are experiencing increasingly warmer temperatures; Ecological change cannot be slowed down. It has to be faster. We will make Spain’s climate goals more ambitious. Our goal is to reduce emissions by half by 2030. Renewable energies are our oil. We will invest 300 billion euros [$320 billion] By 2030, we want to create 500,000 jobs every year and save 90 billion euros [$96 billion] per year through the import of fuels,” said Sánchez. Furthermore, the president argues that all of this is possible while respecting the public [finances] out of control. “Sometimes it seems that only through conservative policies can public finances remain sustainable. That is not true. We can promote growth, have [progressive] Social policy and reduction of the public deficit. In Spain we will reach the 3 percent target in 2024 and reduce debt to 109 percent of GDP. That is why Spain inspires confidence because we have made progress,” said Sánchez.
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