There are just two years of legislature left, but the PSOE and its leader, Pedro Sánchez, are already in an electoral campaign attitude, with the elections in Castilla y León on February 13 as the first milestone. The President of the Government took advantage of his intervention before the Socialist Federal Committee on Friday to encourage his party to claim the management of the Executive, in the face of the offensive of the PP, whose leader, Pablo Casado, has hardened his speech and raises the elections in Castilla y León as part of a triumphant itinerary that began in Madrid in May 2021 and which, according to its plans, will later continue in Andalusia and will have La Moncloa as its terminus.
On his return to public activity after a short break, Sánchez asked his people to defend with special vigor the labor reform, which Congress must validate before February 7. The president called on his party to push for the other groups to support the new Workers' Statute, and he launched against the PP, whose intention to vote against puts at risk a text that has the agreement between employers and unions. “What interests does the opposition defend if it resists supporting the interests of employers and workers, what interests does it defend, what does it put above the interests of Spain? We ask all the political formations to join in, to pitch in for this time ”, urged Sánchez during a blended meeting of the PSOE Federal Committee in a hotel in Madrid.
Sánchez also called on his allies to give in to the labor reform. “Each group will have some objection. They are owned by the employers and the unions, and also by the Government. So it is an agreement. There is no agreement if we do not all give in on something ”, he insisted.
The president asked the PSOE to defend a key norm that the Socialists want to quickly turn into a benchmark of theirs, although the negotiation has been led by the second vice president and Minister of Labor, Yolanda Díaz, of United We Can. "I ask you to turn to the PSOE these weeks in defending the labor reform agreement. There are plenty of reasons. It is an ambitious labor reform. We are going to fight against precariousness and high unemployment. Short-term hiring will be penalized. A third of labor relations in Spain now last five days. We will end outsourcing. We put collective bargaining at the center. This reform responds to the demands of Europe. And it is a good reform because it is agreed between workers and employers, "he claimed.
Sánchez took advantage of the Federal Committee to launch the candidacy of Luis Tudanca, the leader of the PSOE in Castilla y León, who rose to the rostrum after the president. The president will turn to these elections, although the PSOE have not yet closed their pre-electoral agenda. For now, he will be this Sunday in Palencia with Tudanca in the official presentation of his candidacy, and there will surely be more events. While Pablo Casado, who as leader of the opposition has more room for maneuver, will be almost permanently in his community of origin - he was born in Palencia and has been a deputy for Ávila, although most of his political career has been in Madrid.
Casado will enter the scene this Saturday, in his first pre-campaign act with Alfonso Fernández Mañueco, president and candidate of the PP, although he will have to participate electronically because he is still confined for having been infected with covid. Casado will seek the leading role in these elections: the leader of the PP will travel the community with his own agenda, not always accompanying Mañueco.
The campaign will mark the beginning of a year that was presumed quiet, but that has been completely altered with the electoral advance in Castilla y León. Sánchez insisted throughout his speech on comparing two ways of governing and managing a crisis: that of the PP in the last one, the financial one, and that of the PSOE in this one, the pandemic. While the popular, as he recalled, approved cuts and reforms such as pensions or labor without consensus, which led to mobilizations, the socialists this time have reached an agreement with unions and employers both on pensions and labor. And it is the PSOE and the progressive coalition that achieves consensus and political stability. “On this side there are certainties. Stability. What about the other side? We cannot expect anything from a right wing that has no political project and is hostage to the extreme right ”, he claimed.
Sánchez vindicates the employment data, the protection of ERTE and the growth of salaries with the coalition. “We have protected 4.5 million workers who today would be unemployed if it were not for the ERTE. And wages have continued to grow. We have promoted a large income pact that means that in 2021 remuneration has grown 1.7 points over 2019. Between 2008 and 2018 this remuneration fell by 3.5 points. We want decent wages. This is called social democracy ”, he insisted.
Casado, for his part, will also focus on the economy to attack Sánchez and especially his alliances. This Friday, the conservative leader criticized that Sánchez presides over "the most radical government in our democratic history and in the entire EU" and accused him of lying "by denying the pandemic, pardoning the coup, bringing ETA and raising taxes" and of "incompetence to the lead unemployment, inflation and the deficit of the developed world ”.
Casado knows that the electoral prospects are very good for the PP.
Castilla y León is a fiefdom of the right wing, where it has governed for more than three decades - although the PSOE won the last regional elections - and some polls suggest that Mañueco is close to an absolute majority.
Casado wants to rely on the foreseeable victory of the Sorayista baron to gain momentum towards the generals.
That triumph would also serve to detach the rise of the PP from Isabel Díaz Ayuso, because she would no longer be only the president of Madrid, with whom she is facing, the only person responsible for the recovery of the brand.
Controversy over macrofarms
The Prime Minister has made an analysis of the political situation, coinciding with the second anniversary of his inauguration and in full controversy over the demonstrations of the Minister of Consumption, Alberto Garzón, against macro-farms, in an interview with the British newspaper
The Guardian
of which the socialist part of the Executive has been unmarked. Sánchez has not made any specific mention of Garzón's words, beyond indicating in a generic way that the PSOE "complies with farmers and ranchers by approving the CAP." But in the corridors, before entering the meeting, several regional presidents and socialist leaders have charged harshly against the leader of the United Left. Especially that of Castilla-La Mancha, Emiliano García Page, and the candidate in Castilla y León, Luis Tudanca. The PP is using the controversy against the PSOE in this pre-campaign phase in a community with a strong presence of the cattle industry, and the Socialists charge against Garzón, something that United We can call “unfair”.The minister insists that the position that he maintains against the macro-farms is "of the Government" and is the same that the experts defend and that it is the majority in the EU. In fact, governments such as the Netherlands are preparing legislation against these macro-farms for their environmental impact. The controversy is generating significant internal tension in the coalition because United We can support its minister against the PP, but the PSOE asks him to rectify. Precisely, the Federal Committee this Friday has served so that the Socialists and Sánchez himself support Tudanca and launch his candidacy.The controversy is generating significant internal tension in the coalition because United We can support its minister against the PP, but the PSOE asks him to rectify. Precisely, the Federal Committee this Friday has served so that the Socialists and Sánchez himself support Tudanca and launch his candidacy.The controversy is generating significant internal tension in the coalition because United We can support its minister against the PP, but the PSOE asks him to rectify. Precisely, the Federal Committee this Friday has served so that the Socialists and Sánchez himself support Tudanca and launch his candidacy.