“With the batteries charged”. This is how Pedro Sánchez says to face the new political course or, rather, the year and a half that remain until the general elections. The last stretch of the legislature is marked by the economic uncertainty derived from the invasion of Ukraine and by the political tension in Spain. Sánchez has no illusions. Neither he nor he seems to be nearing the end of the war nor does he expect to count on a helping hand from the main opposition party after the change of leadership. Rather, he believes that the PP "is getting worse." Of the internal brawls with United We can prefer not to talk. However, he remembers that his government has not sailed from the beginning "through precisely placid waters" and, for now, has always managed to stay afloat.
Sánchez made these reflections in an informal conversation with journalists on the presidential plane that took him from Colombia to Ecuador and that will finally take him to Honduras. After two weeks of vacation in Lanzarote, he has started the course with a tour of Latin America that connects with the one he did in 2018, when barely four months had elapsed since his arrival at Moncloa after the motion of censure. Satisfied with the first day of the trip, in which he met with Colombian President Gustavo Petro, winner of a close election in which the left won a historic victory in Colombia, the president reviewed some of his concerns for the coming months.
The approval, today in Congress, of the decree on energy saving measures is the paradigm of a legislature in which the government has had to face exceptional situations, has suffered greatly to obtain the necessary parliamentary support and has had a confrontation with the PP that, far from being muffled with the replacement of Pablo Casado by Alberto Núñez Feijóo, is on the way to fester even more. For the coming times, it promises more of the same.
He does not expect any collaboration from the PP, despite the difficulties arising from the war in Ukraine. The Government has in recent days toughened its broadsides against Feijóo, who is already leading the polls. The president does not think of calling the popular leader to reduce tension or seek agreements since he does not find any sign of relaxation on the other side. Although the polls are favorable to the PP, Sánchez is convinced that there is still a long way to go and that his rival will be left behind as citizens get to know the real Feijóo. Specifically, he is sure that he has made a "mistake" with his refusal to vote for an energy saving decree that contains aid for truck drivers, subsidies for public transport or more scholarships and that has European endorsement. Sánchez believes that position will take its toll on him. In any case, faced with the new impulse of the popular, the socialist leader has made changes in the PSOE that he hopes will help mobilize the party. Yesterday he was satisfied with the reception they have had in the game.
As for his parliamentary allies, he hopes to count on them to approve the last budgets of his mandate. It is true that the PNV and ERC insistently complain about the lack of dialogue on the part of the Executive, but Sánchez considers that the economic situation will force those parties to pitch in, albeit reluctantly. And, in this way, it will arrive at the elections with three approved budgets that demonstrate political normalization, even though the context has been so adverse and complicated. Only when asked by his government partners, United We Can, did the president release a more than revealing "no comment" that shows that he no longer dares to even express out loud his desire for the disagreements between the two political parties to end. the coalition and within the formation of Yolanda Díaz. In any case, he insisted that he has no intention of making changes in the Government and that, if he had harbored such claims at some point, he would have done so in July and not with the course started.
Sánchez seems to park some objectives of the legislature, such as the negotiation of a new regional financing system and prefers to concentrate all efforts on dealing with the economic situation and on "leading debates in Europe", taking into account that Spain will hold the presidency of the EU in the second half of 2023, just before the general election. Among these debates is energy. Sánchez does not give up convincing the Frenchman Emmanuel Macron of the need to promote the gas interconnection between the two countries through the Pyrenees, the so-called Midcat, which has the support and financing of the EU. But he is aware of the firm French refusal, so he proposes a "plan B": the connection between Barcelona and Italy. He explained that he had talked about it with the Italian, Portuguese and Greek leaders the last time they had occasion to meet and there was a predisposition in favor of the project, although Mario Draghi no longer governs in Italy and the result of the elections is unknown.
Precisely, Sánchez will travel to Germany on Tuesday at the invitation of the chancellor, the Social Democrat Olaf Scholz, to whom the president attaches importance because he considers that it demonstrates a special gesture towards the Spanish government. Germany is very interested in the gas connections that Spain is trying to promote, such as Midcat.
In short, economic uncertainty is going to be decisive in the coming months. The president did not dare to make any predictions about the end of the war, but admitted that it is necessary to prepare for the probable event that it drags on. And, since he does not expect major changes in Spanish politics, he entrusts a good part of the end of the legislature to the influence that Spain can achieve in Europe at a time when the most pressing problems depend on the international situation and their solutions go beyond the state borders. It is there that he hopes to obtain the greatest political satisfaction.
