“We will govern for all Spaniards, four more years, with progress in favor of the social majority, coexistence and institutional stability.” This is the commitment that Pedro Sánchez claims to assume before Spanish society, once he already has a parliamentary majority to endorse his investiture as president of the government next week.
Sánchez adopted this commitment yesterday before the German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, and the rest of the social democratic leaders gathered at the congress of the European Socialist Party (PES) held in Malaga. And despite the protests of the right against his investiture pacts, and the disturbances of the extreme right – all the more so for this reason –, the plenary session of the congress broke out in a loud ovation when the leader of the PSOE already celebrated his imminent re-election . “Spain is going to have four more years of progressive government,” Sánchez confirmed to the attendees, in English and Spanish, to great applause.
“That is exactly what the majority of the Spanish people voted on July 23,” he alleged. And he wanted to share his “immense joy” with the social democratic leaders gathered in Malaga, who are preparing to close ranks before the European elections next June.
Sánchez highlighted the relevance of the Spanish elections of 23-J stopping the emergence of a “reactionary government”, formed by the Popular Party and the far-right Vox, not only in this country, but throughout Europe, and recalled how the leader Swedish social democrat Olof Palme raised funds against the Franco dictatorship, or the demonstrations in Paris, Lisbon, Brussels or Bonn against the last executions of the Franco regime before the transition.
“I don't appeal to those memories by chance,” he warned. “These days, the most nostalgic far-right of that cruel Franco dictatorship exhibits symbols and proclamations of a dark past for Spain that we believed to be overcome, whose echo resonates with the complicity of a traditional right already parasitized by the far-right,” she denounced.
He thus criticized “a disoriented right, incapable of standing up to the most reactionary extreme right.” And he explicitly addressed the PP, to demand “sanity and moderation.” Precisely today, Alberto Núñez Feijóo has called for demonstrations throughout Spain to protest against his investiture agreements, especially with the Catalan independence movement to approve an amnesty for those prosecuted by the process.
“What they must do is accept the result of the polls, the legitimacy of the government that we are going to form soon in Spain. "Let them have the necessary courage to say no to the bear hug of the extreme right and abandon the reactionary path on which they are advancing towards the abyss today," he prescribed to the PP, again to loud applause.
The leader of the PSOE insisted that, with their vote on 23-J, citizens indicated that “Spain can only be governed if its political pluralism and territorial diversity are recognized.”
“The PP only understands itself and can only agree with the far-right of Vox, with no one else,” he stressed. Instead, he highlighted that the PSOE can agree with all political forces, “except with Vox.” In favor of his investiture, in fact, the socialist group, Sumar, Esquerra, Junts, Bildu, PNV, BNG and Canarian Coalition are already positioned. The block is not only made up of the PP, Vox and UPN.
“The new government is expected to move forward next week with the support of 179 seats of the 350 deputies that make up the Cortes,” Sánchez highlighted. And he defended his legitimacy, despite accusations from the right. “All of them are legitimate representatives of the popular will,” he warned. “With that strength and legitimacy that gives us the power to agree with everyone,” he reiterated his commitment that, as he assured that he has been doing since he arrived at Moncloa five years ago, he will govern “for all Spaniards.” “Spain, today more than ever, is the owner of its future and not a slave to its past,” Sánchez concluded.
The PSOE is now finalizing the registration in Congress, “as soon as possible”, of the amnesty law. Ferraz's organizational secretary, Santos Cerdán, assured yesterday that the legislative initiative has already been transferred to the rest of the parliamentary allies so that they can subscribe to it. And he insisted that the rule will not refer to the judicial war that Junts highlighted in the political agreement. “The PSOE is not talking about lawfare,” he reiterated, given the fire in all judicial associations.
In the face of protests from the right, who also wanted to make themselves heard in front of the Málaga congress palace where the congress was held, Cerdán pointed out who, in his opinion, lit the fuse: “Aznar has a lot of responsibility.”
