Next Monday, the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, publishes his second book, titled Tierra Firme, published by Peninsula. It is a “first-person chronicle” of the experiences of the chief executive and general secretary of the PSOE in the last legislature, in which he governed in coalition with Unidas Podemos. The work lasts until the election night of July 23.
“It is an appeal, without intermediaries, to citizens. It addresses government action, but also what is possible to achieve as a nation in the future: moving from resistance to that solid ground that Spain will reach when all the transformations already underway are completed,” summarizes the editorial. The author of the text, written from recorded conversations with Sánchez, is Irene Lozano, who also wrote the president's first book, Manual de Resistencia, published in 2019.
What follows below are some excerpts from the book, which combine the first-person experience of the leader of the PSOE during the general election campaign on July 23, with episodes from his agenda as President of the Government and also some reflections in a more evident key on the importance of public policies, such as health, and future challenges, such as the climate crisis.
“Everyone in the party was aware that the success of the campaign depended on mobilizing the socialist vote, and at the core of that mobilization is always militancy. They are the first to be activated to radiate energy to the supporters, the voters, the undecided... In Dos Hermanas, the colleagues are always animated, but on June 18, 2023 I was aware that From there it was necessary to raise the spirit of the socialists throughout the country. To the negative polls, the feeling of a change of cycle, the vigor of the extreme right in different European countries and the weight of the electoral results of May 28, was also added to a lot of fatigue. An electoral campaign is an extremely demanding process: it forces the candidates, but it involves the entire party. From the largest rally to family conversations, militants spread the socialist message to the last corner.”
“I admit that I didn't know about that podcast, but we were analyzing it and we discovered that they talk a lot about music, a topic that I am passionate about. We decided to accept the invitation. It was one of the most original and fun moments of the campaign. I felt very comfortable. I remember it being a particularly funny moment when I asked them what music from my generation they liked. They gave me the name Serrat. I laughed so hard that I collapsed on the table. When I composed myself I explained to them that Serrat is from my parents' generation, not mine. They also asked me to bring Taylor Swift to Spain, which allowed me to explain that a President of the Government cannot do everything. A few days later, my daughter told me that, while riding the bus, next to her a girl her age was listening to the interview and laughing out loud. That was the objective: to bring politics closer to people who feel it is distant. We accomplished it, which has made me reflect on the need to communicate our message in all formats, new and classic, since our obligation is to reach everyone. We have to continue doing it.”
“We have defeated the virus, but the diseases will always be there. The average cost of a hospitalization amounts to more than four thousand seven hundred euros; a coronary bypass is around thirty thousand; a lung transplant, the eighty-four thousand. These figures must be kept in mind, because, thanks to the fact that the public health system assumes the expense, an illness does not mean financial ruin for a person, as happens in other countries. We all finance it with our taxes and, thanks to that, our loved ones are still alive and families have not gone bankrupt to support them. The alternative is 'let whoever can pay for it.'"
“Almost at dawn, the agreement was closed. Next Generation funds were born. I had not wanted to make statements to the press during the days of confinement so that nothing would distort or complicate an already very complex negotiation. But later I appeared before journalists to explain it. The meaning of what the Spanish team had fought for those days was so clear to me that I myself wrote, sitting in front of a computer in the Spanish representation, the words with which I addressed the journalists. The first thing I did was recognize their work: they too had sweated to write their chronicles in those days and had slept little. For my part, and I confessed this to him, I felt deeply moved.”
“The climate crisis forces us to undergo a complete and accelerated transformation of our economic system, to turn it into a clean one that dispenses with the burning of fossil fuels, that safeguards biodiversity and ecosystems, and that ensures cities where it is not dangerous to breathe and with clean industrial processes. The changes are profound and structural, and must be sustained over time. Above all, I am firmly convinced that they constitute an opportunity for our country if we know how to take advantage of it.” “I have already mentioned Anthony Giddens and how his book The Politics of Climate Change contributed to my training as a public servant. I read it more than a decade ago and it contains most of the concepts that today are taken for granted in the public policies of many countries. One of Giddens' valuable ideas – and one that is not easy to find its way into times of dystopia – is the need to make a hopeful green speech. Only with a positive approach will political and economic convergence be achieved, aligning the different parties, the different administrations, the private sector and citizens. As he says, Martin Luther King did not mobilize people by proclaiming 'I have a nightmare!' Hope motivates, fear paralyzes. Governments can do great work to raise public awareness. We have done it.” “When Spain proposes energy issues, in Europe we are listened to, because we are a country committed to reducing emissions and the ecological transition. We can present ourselves by showing how in just five years, from 2018 to 2022, our country has multiplied the use of renewable energy, which has increased by 44 percent. Our figures are spectacular because the response of companies and citizens to the Government's incentives to develop photovoltaic energy is being extraordinary: it is possible that we will reach the objectives that we had set for 2030 before that date. Once again, citizen commitment is manifested when their contribution is encouraged with clear and concrete changes.”
“We are entering a new era in which we must work for a humanistic use of technology, in which everyone benefits from its advantages and we minimize its negative consequences, which can be many.” “In January 2023 it was special to return to Davos in the middle of winter. In 2021 the World Economic Forum was held remotely due to the pandemic and in 2022 it was postponed to May for the same reason. And without snow it is not the same. It was my fifth year in Davos and, given our performance in digital and green modernization, there were numerous CEOs of companies and investment funds who wanted to meet with us. One of them, head of one of the main global investment funds, told me verbatim that there is no country in Europe that is doing things as well in energy matters as Spain. “I felt very proud.”
“In a general panorama of increasing inequalities, gender equality has gone against the grain. One of the great advances in general equality has been achieved, precisely, by expanding women's equality (...). In recent decades, the bad news for general equality has been offset by women and the good news they have given us. It is something we should all be grateful for.”
“While in Kyiv, in the hotel room where I was finalizing preparations for the meeting with Zelensky, I was startled by an alarm that urged us to go to the shelters. The presence of drones had been detected over the city and we had to follow the security protocols for these cases. Hours later, once the danger had passed, I had the opportunity to ask a group of Ukrainian soldiers if they were armed drones. They answered me no. It is something that Russia does regularly, they explained to me. Use psychological warfare. It seeks to frighten the civilian population by flying over their heads with drones. Until they have passed, the inhabitants of the city do not know whether they will attack them or not.”
