Barely three months after the municipal and regional electoral contest of 28-M, Pedro Sánchez brandishes the banners of his government management that can mobilize the progressive electorate, as well as the revaluation of pensions, the rise in the minimum wage, the defense of public health or new taxes on financial institutions, energy corporations and large fortunes. At the same time, the Popular Party puts the focus right where it hurts the chief executive the most, in the face of the resistance of United We Can to its reform of the law that only yes is yes, despite the cascade of reductions in sentences for sexual offenders, or a penal reform, agreed with Esquerra, highly questioned by the Supreme Court. This pre-election clash between the leader of the PSOE and the PP has been propped up this Wednesday in the control session of the Government in Congress.
Sánchez has come out to counterattack in the face of the flurry of criticism with which the PP spokesperson in Congress, Cuca Gamarra, has received him. “We govern for the majority of this country, our priority is to govern for ordinary people. Not like you, who defend the elites you serve", stated the President of the Government.
The head of the Executive has listed some of the achievements that he attributes to his mandate, such as the equal pay law that has reduced the gap between men and women "to historic lows", according to a CCOO report, which was voted on in against by the PP. Sánchez has also criticized that the main opposition party has voted against the revaluation of pensions according to the CPI or the tax on energy entities, financial entities and large fortunes. And not only did they vote against these new taxes to distribute the costs of the inflationary crisis, but the autonomous governments of the PP in Madrid and Andalusia have appealed it before the Constitutional Court.
Sánchez has insisted that his Government's priority is to strengthen the national health system, with 1,000 million euros for primary care in 2022 and 2023, while the PP, in those communities where it governs, "what they do is cut and refer many of the patients to private healthcare”. What's more, the head of the Executive has highlighted that the PP "insults to the face" the health professionals who demonstrated again last Sunday in Madrid in defense of public health.
“We can be wrong. And when there is a mistake, we strive to solve that problem”, Sánchez assured. "You, on the other hand, are never wrong: you are always with those above," the Prime Minister has settled in the face of criticism that Gamarra has directed at him.
The PP spokeswoman, for her part, has charged forcefully against Sánchez. "Eliminating the crime of sedition and making embezzlement cheaper has been fatal for him," she has reproached him. “It has not approved us with any European country, it has left the State unprotected, as the Supreme Court has unanimously ruled. And he has not even managed to satisfy his pro-independence partners ”, she has reproached him. Gamarra has also emphasized the avalanche of reductions in sentences for sexual offenders -which in one week, as he has highlighted, has gone from benefiting 415 criminals to doing so with 520-, caused by the judicial application of the new freedom law sexual. "A botch job that leaves women and minors unprotected, and that you still haven't solved," he reproached her.
Gamarra has lamented that Sánchez was in "such a hurry" to promote the repeal of sedition and the reform of embezzlement, and now instead he is "so parsimony" to correct the law of yes is yes. The PP spokesperson has reached out to the Prime Minister to reform this controversial rule, without the concurrence of United We Can. "If you want, next Thursday, February 23, we will bring your rectification to this plenary session," she has offered. However, in her reply, Sánchez has ignored this invitation.
