Sánchez points out the priorities of his Government: ecological transition and reducing structural unemployment

The certainty that Alberto Núñez Feijóo will fail in his attempt at investiture next week is very present in Pedro Sánchez's trip to New York for the UN summit. The acting president, who is convinced that he will achieve a pact for his own investiture when that of the PP leader falls, has already begun to present the main lines of what will be his political project. This Wednesday, during the opening of the forum Latin America, the United States and Spain in the global economy, an event organized by EL PAÍS and the Spain-US Chamber of Commerce, Sánchez has raised the priorities of his future Government, if he achieves the confidence of Congress, and that basically consist of reinforcing what has been done in the last four years, with special emphasis on deepening the ecological and digital transition and fighting structural unemployment, a Spanish scourge that the leader of the PSOE promises to reduce by half in a legislature. Sánchez explained that, although there are many political sectors, especially on the right and far right, that are talking about slowing down the ecological transition at the time of economic difficulty that the world is experiencing, he believes that, on the contrary, Spain must accelerate and strengthen its position as a benchmark in renewable energies, for example.

Political, economic and educational leaders from both sides of the Atlantic met this Wednesday morning at the Roxy Hotel in New York, in the Latin America, United States and Spain forum on the global economy. The event is organized by EL PAÍS and the Spain-USA Chamber of Commerce. The event is sponsored by Abertis, Baker McKenzie, Grupo Nutresa, Iberia, Inditex and Indra and has the collaboration of the Organization of Ibero-American States for Education, Science and Culture (OEI). It is celebrated in the same week that the General Assembly of the United Nations (UN) meets in the city, and Sánchez has been in charge of making its opening with the director of EL PAÍS, Pepa Bueno.

Bueno pointed out that the media have the obligation to stop at debates such as the climate battle and thus ensure that all citizens feel involved "in the challenges of green transformation and gender equality". "They are the two great transformations that appeal to all orders of our lives," the director concluded.

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Pepa Bueno addresses the forum 'Latin America, the United States and Spain in the global economy'

Pepa Bueno, director of EL PAÍS, intervenes in the forum 'Latin America, the United States and Spain in the global economy', at The Roxy hotel, in New York, this Wednesday. Photo: LUCÍA VÁZQUEZ

Sánchez has taken the opportunity, with a forum above all business, to point out the main lines of his economic policy with clear data of the enormous volume of investments that he has planned for the coming years if he achieves the investiture and his confidence that Spain can consolidate itself as a benchmark of modernity, advanced public policy and commitment to innovation, The green economy and multilateralism, also questioned in some sectors but always defended by the President in all international forums.

"We have a clear roadmap that needs to be consolidated in the coming years," explains the acting president. "Spain leads growth in the EU. We have the lowest inflation in the Eurozone, with Belgium, 2.4%. We will grow more than double the EU average this year. And we're going to keep it in 2024. The labour market grew at rates of 3% in August, and especially in sectors with high added value. Temporary employment, with the labour reform, has been halved, to 15%, the European average. Structural unemployment will fall by half a million people by 2025. Exports grew by 24% in 2022. In a context of enormous difficulty, Spain is weathering the inflationary crisis better than other countries. And in addition, we now know that, according to the INE, the GDP was 20,000 million euros higher than we thought until now. The can that the opposition gave me with the fact that we did not recover the pre-pandemic GDP and now we know that we did it in 2022!", explained Sánchez.

Halving unemployment

The leader of the PSOE has set three priorities of his Government if he achieves the investiture. First, "maintain the momentum of growth and modernization of the country, do not use economic problems as an excuse, continue advancing in the digital and ecological transformation, with another 94,000 million euros in investments that are in the addendum to the Spanish transformation plan. We are going to move forward on the path of health, cybersecurity, defense, decarbonization, microchips."

The second major element of his political project for the next four years is unemployment. "We have to break the ground of 8% structural unemployment in our country. It is not acceptable. We are in a position to halve it with the labour reform and bring ourselves up to European levels. We will continue to modernise our vocational training. We must also change the forms of work organization. The debate on the use of time is fundamental. We must achieve a cultural change in the organization of work, with more flexible working hours to achieve greater conciliation, "he insisted.

Pedro Sánchez greets those attending the forum. Lucia Vazquez

The third priority is the ecological transition, with very clear figures. "There is no excuse, we have warmer and warmer temperatures, the ecological transition cannot be stopped, but has to be accelerated. We are going to increase the ambition of climate objectives assumed by Spain. By 2030, we aim to eliminate half of emissions. Renewable energies are our oil. We are going to invest 300,000 million euros until 2030, we hope to create 500,000 jobs a year, and achieve savings of 90,000 million euros a year by importing fuels, "predicts the leader of the PSOE. In addition, the president assures that all this can be done without losing control of public accounts. "Sometimes it seems that the sustainability of public accounts can only be achieved with conservative policies. That's not true. We can promote growth, make social policies and reduce the public deficit. In Spain we will meet the 3% target by 2024, and reduce debt to 109% of GDP. That is why Spain inspires confidence, because we have made merits, "said the leader of the PSOE, who is already beginning to be in candidate mode before the evidence that the investiture of Feijóo has all the signs of failure.

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