Sánchez announces measures that "will not be dramatic" nor "there will be apocalyptic scenes"

Shortly after 4:00 p.

Thomas Osborne
Thomas Osborne
06 September 2022 Tuesday 08:31
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Sánchez announces measures that "will not be dramatic" nor "there will be apocalyptic scenes"

Shortly after 4:00 p.m. and after several new senators swore in or promised the Constitution, the first parliamentary face-to-face began, beyond a control session, between the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, and the president of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, which will last all afternoon.

The debate takes place after Sánchez asked to appear in the Upper House to report on the energy saving plan and use his management in the face of the ongoing energy and inflation crisis. Feijóo had claimed it in August since the Senate is the only space in which the leader of the PP can debate with the chief executive since the former is not a deputy.

In his first speech, Sánchez, who arrived at the plenary session without a tie, announced that given the blockade of Russian gas, the Government is going to approve new measures that "will not erode the quality of life of citizens." In this sense, he has assured that "there will be no dramatic measures" nor "there will be rationing or blackouts or apocalyptic scenes" as, according to what he has said, the political right proclaims, for which he has sent a message of "tranquility" to the public. "We can change some life habits to defend our life model. We are going to present them in detail very soon," Sánchez added about these additional saving measures. The head of the Executive has wanted to distance himself from the predictions that predict "the end of prosperity" to be closer to the "end of waste". "We are at the beginning of a new stage with a more responsible economy than before," he indicated.

The Chief Executive has reiterated that the Government is working and will continue to work to protect people from inflationary pressure and the uncertainty caused by the war in Ukraine and has already called for confidence in the Spanish economy. In line with this, he has presented good forecasts for growth and employment of institutions such as the CEOE. To summarize, Sánchez pointed out that "Spain is facing important challenges but it does so with more strength than in the past". And faced with the dilemma between fear and hope, Sánchez has concluded that the Government is on the side of hope and solutions.

On the other hand, the president has affirmed that Spain will not give up promoting Midcat after France has rejected the gas interconnection with Catalonia through the Pyrenees. "We are not going to let up on the demand to promote interconnections between the Iberian Peninsula and the rest of the continent," said Sánchez, who argued that "we are not talking about a bilateral issue between the Iberian Peninsula and France." "Here we are talking about how to strengthen energy supply alternatives in the European Union as a whole," he argued.

The debate is heated by yesterday's statements by Feijóo, who said that the coalition government is in an "irremissible phase of deterioration" as in The Autumn of the Patriarch, the novel by Gabriel García Márquez The leader of the PP specifically said that the Government coalition is in an "irremediable phase of deterioration" as García Márquez's book said, a fable about the loneliness of power whose protagonist is an old dictator who recreates the Latin American dictatorships of the 20th century.

This midday, the Minister of Territorial Policy and Government spokesperson, Isabel Rodríguez, has asked the president of the PP to withdraw these words before the debate, which, in her opinion, are "unworthy of any political leader of a democratic State".

The debate will last all afternoon. The president maintains a first intervention without a time limit and shortly after the spokespersons of the groups will have fifteen minutes for their interventions and then five more to reply to the president's response, again without a time limit. In this regard, the president of the Senate, Ander Gil, has promised to be "flexible" in the use of the word by the leader of the PP and the rest of the parliamentary groups.