Sánchez warns of a "obscene cut of rights in exchange for votes" after the agreement between PP and Vox in Extremadura

“What we knew was going to happen has happened.” This has been pronounced by Pedro Sánchez after the leader of the PP in Extremadura, María Guardiola, has reached an agreement to govern with Vox, despite having rebelled just a few days ago. “Where I can govern because they give the numbers, they will govern”, he said, sending a clear message to the progressive electorate at a press conference in Brussels in which at times he took off his president’s suit and put on that of a candidate.

“We must take note of what is happening with the agreements that Feijóo and Abascal are reaching,” added Sánchez, who has assured that the important thing is the “why” and not the “with whom” drawing the strategy against the attack by their pacts with the independence forces. “It is one thing to agree with parties to cut rights in exchange for votes and another thing is to agree with parties to advance rights,” he said before referring to the first measures that have been adopted in municipalities governed by the extreme right in which the PP has agreed to erase the LGTBI flags of the institutions.

“Removing an LGTBI flag is taking away rights, not recognizing rights that are recognized by law”, Sánchez has condemned, who beyond the “reproach”, has assured that it “causes embarrassment” and that some European colleagues, who have not detailed, that they are “frankly surprised and upset with the involution that is taking place in certain debates in which Spain had been an example and now, unfortunately since May 28, it is being a counterexample.”

Sánchez has insisted that “where there is a coalition government” of PP and Vox “that territory is going to go backwards and, consequently, Spain is going to go backwards.” The socialist leader, who brought forward the general elections after the defeat in the municipal and regional elections, has been optimistic to a certain extent at a time when the PSOE is beginning to catch air. Thus, his analysis is that on May 28 there was “a hypermobilization of the PP and Vox electorate” and a “regression” of the progressive that, in his opinion, was reflected in the drop in participation. However, he has argued that the loss of institutional power is due to the “division to the left” of the PSOE, which he believes can now be reversed because “today there is only one project” in reference to the Sumar platform led by Yolanda Díaz. “We are going to win the elections”, he responded to a question about the eventual replacement at the helm of the Spanish presidency of the EU.

Although he has insisted that he should not fall into “complacency”, he has puffed up the economic growth of Spain, which is the largest country in the EU with the lowest rate of inflation, falling below the 2% threshold and standing at the lowest rate since 2021. That is why he has reiterated that “what works” should not be “repealed” in reference to the amendment to his entire management that the PP says it will do.

However, he has taken the opportunity to rule on Feijóo’s change of position regarding the labor reform, which he now says is “substantially good” and that he will leave “intact”. “It is curious that they have gone from repealing the sanchismo to recognize that the labor reform is good for Spain”, said the President of the Government “sarcastically”, who ironized the fact that the PP now “remembers” deputy Alberto Casero, whose error in the vote allowed him to take forward that text agreed with unions, employers and the European Commission.

Sánchez spoke like this at a press conference in Brussels after participating in the European Council meeting, which ended without conclusions on the migration part due to the rebellion of Hungary and Poland against the migration pact paved by the 27. After the summit , the President of the Government will head to Ukraine, where he will spend the first day of the rotating presidency of the EU that Spain assumes starting this Saturday. The visit, which responds to an invitation from Volodímir Zelenski, has an important symbolic charge. “This says a lot about how important the next six months are going to be for Europe,” the Ukrainian president told EU leaders in his video conference address on Thursday.