Pedro Sánchez approaches the journalists who accompany him in the tired and much thinner gesture than usual, after a month and a half infernal for and already thinking about the imminent vacation. But his message denotes at all times, even if he says it expressly, that he considers that and that he will be able to overcome it at all and try to finish the legislature. The president does not seem worried about possible new revelations of the UCO, because he believes that what was done to do: acting forcefully, collaborating with justice and proposing anti -corruption reforms.
Sánchez speaks to journalists with data that try to demonstrate that in the background this legislature, although he cannot take out the budgets, is not so different from the other two he led. In the first (2018-2019), he explains, the Government won 90% of the voting in Congress. In the second (2019-2023), it was 89%. And some of those that are lost, such as the decisive on Tuesday, which, then recover a few months later, explains, without news, as happened this Tuesday with the public health agency, lying a few months ago by the PP and Junts.
Sánchez thus offers an image that accuses wear of a very hard blow, which touches its credibility because it was he who appointed, renewed and defended until the last minute to Cerdán, but also of someone who feels that he is seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. “I’m fine, I’m strong,” he says to journalists.
The President speaks openly of the future, of the two years that remain of the legislature, of his plans to move forward and his strategy to recover the, which happens, explains, for deepening the agenda of progressive reforms – with the reduction of working hours as a milestone, he says, in which it will have to be flexible to achieve a majority in Congress – and to maintain the good economic news, which will confirm that he will confirm the next EPA, with new employment data.
The president admits that it has been a very hard moment and points out that what gives him “more anger” is that “corruption opaque an extraordinary work of a government that has also done so in a parliamentary minority.” Sánchez thought about resigning, as he has admitted, but now he believes he has a majority and political gasoline to continue and especially to claim the executive’s management.
In addition, Sánchez insists on differentiating the cases of corruption from the PSOE, which does not consider systemic even if they have affected their two secretaries of organization, those of the PP, who do believe that they are, and quotes Kitchen, the Patriotic Police and especially former Minister of Finance, which according to the judicial investigation made large companies save thousands of millions in taxes in exchange for them to pay for an economic team, a lobby that founded a lobby. “It is not a matter of drawing, because the PP wins as a win. It is not a matter of competing, but of fighting corruption,” he says. “Feijóo claims Aznar and Rajoy and jumps the Montoro case,” he recalls.
The government is very aware of Montoro case And Sánchez has assured the journalists who are studying all Montoro reforms that favor large companies in exchange for alleged bites to “reverse those privileges.” It is a very sensitive matter, because they are huge amounts of money. Sanchez announces the political will to reverse them but now we will have to see what it is, because some of these reforms are already changed and there will be a lot of pressure from the companies to avoid a significant increase in their taxes. Companies can also use other pressure paths such as other groups in Congress that reject any tax modification. In fact, the Extraordinary Electric Tax established by the Progressive Coalition fell this year due to pressures of Junts and PNV.
The president is not clear about the possibility of a crisis with changes in the Executive in September, something that is speculated in different sectors, and even jokes with journalists- “If I say no, you will believe me … I am very happy with the government”- but it does transfer a positive sensation of the continuity of the legislature and contradictory with what the leader of the PNV says, Aitor Esteban, that he sees the legislature at risk because the legislature is consolidating a “negative coalition” in which together and we can join their votes more and more frequently to the PP and Vox. “In this Congress we do not have a majority of left or right -wing. But the only one that can articulate a majority is the PSOE. The PP does not succeed. We won and lose votes, but we continue forward. In September we will continue to move forward our road map and the PP will continue to kick,” he ironizes.
Sanchez does not have quantified the wear that the Cerdán case and in particular in the female vote the macho conversations of José Luis Ábalos and Koldo García or the fall of another man of his trust, Paco Salazar, for complaints of abuse. But he trusts to reverse it because he sees the elections distant. “Democracy is not demonstration. We will see when they are the elections. The vote is not now in the imaginary of the people,” he says.
As for the concrete reforms, such as the reduction of the day, which admits that in a “milestone” of the legislature, Sánchez drops that Díaz must negotiate with flexibility and “make an effort, as he is doing”, because “there is no majority of lefts in Congress”, nor is there right -wing.
On Monday, the President will appear in La Moncloa to take stock, just when two years of the 2023 elections are completed, and will transfer the idea that there is a legislature for a while and more than it seems because “45% of the objectives of the legislature has been met”.
Some in the government believe that the only solid political exit is to take the battle thoroughly to negotiate from September the budgets of 2026. Sánchez does not clarify what will happen to them, leaves it open, but it does clear that he is not thinking of elections even if he cannot approve them. “There are budgets,” he insists – but he speaks of the extended extenders, of course – “and above all we have the European funds.” As he remembers, they are about to receive the fifth disbursement of 7,000 million euros.
Sánchez is thus confident that he is leaving the pig hole and has political support to exhaust the legislature, despite the scares of Podemos and Junts. And above all, if compared to its surroundings, it looks even stronger than others. “If we look at Europe, we see France who is making a cut of 44,000 million euros. In Spain we are not doing that, and we must value it,” he finishes. Sanchez seems to be willing to finish off the season with his appearance on Monday and the Tuesday’s Council of Ministers to leave after vacation and return to the end of August with the intention of confirming that idea he launched on the official plane and that many, even the decisive PNV, call into question, that is that there is a legislature for a while.
