Podemos multiplies the fronts in its offensive against the PSOE

The spokespersons for Podemos, Pablo Fernández and Alejandra Jacinto, at a press conference this Monday at the party headquarters in Madrid.FERNANDO ALVARADO (EFE)

Podemos has intensified its offensive on multiple fronts against the PSOE this Monday while the majority government party has made an effort to limit its partner's criticism of the proximity of the regional and municipal elections.

After several weeks of tensions over the reform of the

and the presentation of the PSOE proposal alone in the face of the crisis unleashed by the reduction of sentences and release of sexual offenders, the formation of Ione Belarra has redoubled the intensity against the socialists.

In addition to demanding a "unitary agreement" from the Ministry of Equality in the reform of the sexual freedom law, Podemos has criticized that the Minister of Agriculture, Luis Planas, seeks an agreement with the "speculators" of the food sector , in reference to employers.

Podemos has also set its own profile, calling the measures taken by the economic vice president, Nadia Calviño, to avoid evictions after the rise in variable-rate mortgages in the summer "insufficient", and has once again distanced itself from the PSOE for sending weapons to the Army from Ukraine.

Podemos has started by opening fire against the PSOE this Monday with the

In line with what the party has defended in recent days, its spokesman, Pablo Fernández, has repeated arguments and has demanded that the Socialists sit down again at the negotiating table with Equality to give "a united response from the Government from Spain".

Fernández has called it "incomprehensible" that the partner wants to modify the law "with the votes of the PP and Vox, removing the consent of the center of it and returning to the Penal Code of the Pack", a phrase that its leaders have repeated like a mantra since two weeks ago.

The party rejects that the crime of aggression is divided into two subtypes depending on whether there was violence or intimidation and they are in favor of increasing the penalties for aggravating circumstances, something that the PSOE rules out.

Next, the leader of Podemos has been very critical of Planas, who this Monday was meeting with employers of the large supermarkets and representatives of the food sector.

After the PSOE refused to limit market prices, Podemos proposed last week to give a 14.4% discount on the purchase of 20 basic products.

The initiative was presented on Thursday, a day after it was known that core inflation stood at 15.4% in January.

"From Podemos we do not expect anything from that meeting, because the solution is not to agree with who the problem is," Fernández has defended.

The spokesman has called on the PSOE to "overcome their fears."

"It should not be the guardian of the interests of the economic powers," he remarked.

Also present at the appearance, Alejandra Jacinto, United Podemos candidate for the presidency of the Community of Madrid, immediately charged against the agreement that the first vice president reached with the bank at the end of last year to alleviate the burden of the most mortgaged vulnerable.

Precisely this Monday it has been known that evictions increased in the last quarter of the year, coinciding with the soaring rise of the Euribor, almost 40%, according to data from notaries and registrars.

“It is shown that the measures proposed by Nadia Calviño are insufficient, only 1,000 people have taken advantage of them.

They are the same measures that Mariano Rajoy proposed.

We once again request that the prices of mortgages [variable rate] be intervened immediately ”, the spokesperson also claimed.

The last discrepancy to which the regional deputy has referred has been related to the war in Ukraine.

Podemos held last Friday, together with other parties of the European left, a Conference for Peace in Madrid in which it already charged against the socialist strategy.

Jacinto highlighted again this Monday, just a few days after the first anniversary of the Russian invasion, that today is "much further from peace than a year ago" and questioned the "escalation" of the conflict "that the EU has fed through the shipment of arms”, in opposition to the official position of the PSOE.

"Pre-election context"

Faced with the attacks from Podemos, the PSOE has endeavored to reduce the tension with the minority partner of the Government and attributes the maneuver of the formation of Ione Belarra to the imminence of the elections on May 28.

Although the party rejects this reading, at the beginning of the year its leaders called for "the ideological battle" in the remainder of the legislature.

“Certain types of interventions or demonstrations must be framed in the pre-electoral moment in which we are, less than 100 days before the regional and municipal elections.

The words [of Podemos] must be framed in this context”, stated Pilar Alegría.

The spokesperson for the socialist executive and Minister of Education has highlighted the unity of action of the coalition "when we descend to the important laws":

The PSOE leadership privately acknowledges that some of Podemos's statements in recent days have not been "gratifying", but it does not want to contribute to fueling a noise that benefits the PP.

Alegría was very careful choosing her words when she was asked about Belarra's statement, last Friday, when she accused the PSOE of “following” US interests in the war in Ukraine.

“Today they tell us that there will never be Spanish soldiers fighting in the Ukraine or American soldiers flying combat planes.

We have no guarantee that they will not go back on their word ”, the Minister of Social Rights came to question the word of the coalition government of which she is a part.

“There are demonstrations and comments that contemplate a certain

and I frame it clearly in the pre-election moment”, has been Alegría's response.

The positions remain immobile in the negotiation of the law of

By far the most difficult issue and the one that is causing the most friction in the Government.

Sources from the socialist part of the Executive branch affirm that they are already working with the scenario that the date of the debate to take into consideration the reform of the law is March 7, the eve of Women's Day.

The PSOE rejects the PP's offer to hold an extraordinary plenary session this week.

“There is nothing new.

This Government and this Parliament approved a good law, a law that focuses on the comprehensive protection of women but which we also saw when it was applied produced absolutely undesirable effects and absolutely undesirable reductions.

Hence the reform while maintaining the heart of the law, which is consent”, settled Alegría,

In Ferraz they have not entered into the insistence of Podemos to subsidize 20 basic products of the purchase either.

The PSOE has recalled the abolition since January 1 of VAT on products such as milk and eggs and the drop to 4% in the case of pasta and oil.

“From the first moment we have studied the different measures and proposals that are put on the table, especially the solvent ones.

You have to leave time, but it is translating a drop in the price of food ”, Alegría has observed.

The data that the National Institute of Statistics published last week indicate that the rise in food and non-alcoholic beverages was 15.4% in January compared to last year, below the 15.7% that advanced in December, when they touched all-time highs.

Inflation picked up to 5.9%, but remains the lowest in the EU.

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