“Let’s go for all”. Up to four times Pedro Sánchez has repeated that expression before a PSOE in low hours after several electoral setbacks and demographic expectations that have set off all the alarms in Moncloa, but also in the socialist territories. The president has wanted to settle the internal crisis as soon as possible with a Federal Committee this Saturday to ratify the changes after the abrupt departure of the deputy secretary general, Adriana Lastra, from whom she has coldly said goodbye. Sánchez has taken advantage of his speech before the highest management body of the PSOE to vindicate the management that he is doing in the face of adversity, which he has blamed for the situation, and has admitted errors that he has not detailed. But above all he has defended the action of the coalition against what the PP would have done and has encouraged his people to sell that idea in the face of the 2023 electoral cycle. “It’s time to put one more march,” he summarized.
The turn to the left brings Sánchez closer to his partners and the Government trusts that it will mark a turning point
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Strengthening the communication capacity of the party is what it aims to do with the remodeling of the socialist leadership, which has led to the rise of the Minister of Education, Pilar Alegría, as spokesperson to the detriment of Felipe Sicilia, who disappears from the scene, although for now it remains in the Executive without attributions; and Patxi López as the new spokesperson in Congress to replace Héctor Gómez from the Canary Islands. “Of course we have made mistakes. [le ha dicho Sánchez los cerca de 300 miembros del Comité Federal antes de enumerar situaciones a las que ha hecho frente como la pandemia, la guerra o la inflación]. I’m sure we haven’t always been right, but I suggest that we explain how things would be if the right was in government”. However, the president has not gone into what have been the failures that have led to the situation that the PSOE is going through right now.
Surrounded by his new hard core, which also includes the Minister of Finance, María Jesús Montero, as the new number two of the PSOE, Sánchez has listed the coalition’s service record by mentioning the labor reform, the Minimum Vital Income, the ERTE or the ICO credits, among other measures, to reiterate that the social democratic recipe is “the most effective” to face the crisis. “Governing is choosing. We socialists choose to protect the middle and working class, which is the ordinary working middle class”, said the socialist leader, who made a speech similar to that of the debate on the state of the nation in the new strategy designed by Moncloa to turn against the economic powers: “When it is necessary to choose, we will be on the side of those who need the help of the public powers, even if doing so makes us uncomfortable for the most powerful”.
“We ask large companies to do the same [que el Gobierno] and that any extraordinary benefit reverts to the protection of our fellow citizens”, he expressed in reference to the taxes on energy companies and banks that PSOE and United We Can register next week through a bill in Congress. The president has reiterated that the extra benefits that these companies are receiving due to the economic situation – with the increase in energy prices or the rise in interest rates and inflation – cannot “lead to bonuses for great managers” after recalling that “banks have distributed dividends for more than 3,000 million and last year more than 13,000 million”.
“It is time to define yourself, to say whether or not you are with the working class”, he stated before pointing directly to the PP: “The right has announced its opposition today, as always, we are not surprised”, he said about those two new taxes. “We can expect nothing from the right that changes cartel, but it is still the same opposition as always, without any intention of helping Spain,” he added about Alberto Núñez Feijóo.
Sánchez took advantage of his speech to make clear Spain’s rejection of the proposal made by the European Commission to deal with the gas shortage due to the supply cut that Russia may carry out next winter. “We will defend our interests against imposed solutions, which are not effective”, he has expressed about the regulation that provides for a 15% cut in gas consumption for all EU countries. “I am convinced that in the next few days we are going to reach a balanced, supportive and pro-European agreement that guarantees the security of supply for all member states. The Government of Spain is working on this”, added the president, who has slipped that Spain has already done its homework. The Executive defends that the European proposal must not be linear for all countries, that it must also take into account the possibilities of supply that Spain has for the other states.
“You will always see me showing my face and striving to provide a solution to each of the problems that arise along the way. Because this is how we socialists govern in the autonomous communities, the provincial councils and the city councils: with determination and dialogue, with empathy and with social sensitivity”, said the president, who has dedicated a good part of his speech to the fires and the emergency against which he maintains that we must act “with no time to waste”.
“In the debate on the state of the nation, you heard me commit to the social majority to go for it all. It wasn’t a personal commitment, I wasn’t saying it for myself. I know all the socialists well, he spoke for all of us. And, on behalf of the socialists, I address the millions of progressives and I propose that we go for it all”, he finished.
Sánchez’s message, added to the changes he has made in the PSOE leadership, aims to activate the party for next year’s electoral cycle. “Curves are coming”, said the president of Castilla-La Mancha, Emiliano García-Page, upon his arrival in Ferraz. The leader of the PSC, Salvador Illa, has also acknowledged that “difficult times are coming.” That is why the Federal Committee, which has gone ahead of schedule in the face of Lastra’s unexpected resignation, has served to approve the calendar of the primary processes for the election of the candidates for the regional and municipal elections (from cities with more than 20,000 inhabitants) through primaries. The intention is that all the names are selected in October (the 9th in the first round or the 16th in the second) and with exceptions in December. The lists will be approved at the end of January.
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