Two almost simultaneous scenes this Thursday in Paris and Madrid give an idea of how different Spanish politics looks from inside and from outside and the very different moment that Pedro Sánchez is experiencing, with three approved Budgets and a stable majority despite the challenges that they constantly raise their partners from Podemos or ERC, and other European leaders.
Almost at the same time that the Council of Ministers fully applauded the head of Social Security, José Luis Escrivá, for having achieved the apparent miracle of agreeing with Brussels, with Podemos and with the unions on a pension reform without adjustments, Emmanuel Macron received the news that he was not going to have enough votes to approve his cut to French pensions, which has the unions at war, the street on fire and threatens to charge the prime minister, Élisabeth Borne.
While Escrivá appeared euphoric in La Moncloa, Macron was convening an extraordinary meeting of his ministers in Paris to approve the reform by decree without a vote, something unfeasible in Spain and that could bring down the French Executive after a motion of no confidence that is already being prepared .
France adjusts pensions, Spain improves them.
This is possible, explains Escrivá, because Spain did its homework with previous pension reforms —in 2011 the retirement age was approved at 67 and France is at war to raise it to 64— but also because the Spanish government has managed to negotiate with Brussels this reform without adjustments.
And this last part is the most surprising and the one that the Government claims the most as a political success that, in its opinion, nullifies the opposition's criticism.
If it is endorsed by Brussels, it cannot be a patch, they point out in La Moncloa.
In fact, the key man in the negotiations with the Commission is Declan Costello, a very tough official from the Economy Commissioner who became famous in 2015 because he was the head of the men in black who settled in Athens at the height of the crisis and forced the Government of Alexis Tsipras to make harsh adjustments that further sank the Greek economy.
After two months of negotiations with Escrivá and endless discussions about numbers that did not quite add up to Brussels, Costello and above all his political boss, the Italian social democrat Paolo Gentiloni, accepted that Spain reform its pensions positively and without adjustments, not even a mandatory extension of the calculation period, which Podemos flatly rejected until the end.
Pedro Sánchez often repeats that when he travels to Brussels, far from asking him about Podemos or the internal tensions of the Executive —as is usual in Spain—, the other leaders tell him how it is possible that Spain, with a Parliament as divided as the other partners and a minority coalition government —22 seats are missing from the absolute one— has been able to carry out three Budgets and dozens of far-reaching reforms, such as labor —which came out by the minimum and on a rebound, but passed— or, now , this pension, which already seems to have a solid majority to be approved, despite the rejection of the PP.
At this time there are several European countries that have committed pension reforms to the European Commission, within the recovery plan to receive European funds.
From left to right, the general secretary of CC OO, Unai Sordo;
the Minister of Social Security, José Luis Escrivá, and the General Secretary of the UGT, Pepe Álvarez, on March 15, after agreeing to the reform.ISABEL INFANTES (Europa Press)
The pension reform has thus been a breath of fresh air for the coalition this week, not only because it has managed to agree on it after more than a year of intense negotiations, but also because of the political message that it sends and that the Government will in all probability take advantage of in all the possible forums, including that of the motion of censure that begins on Tuesday in Congress.
Associate Feijóo with cuts
Pedro Sánchez and Yolanda Díaz want to focus the electoral campaign on a strong idea: the left governs better, helps create jobs, raises the minimum wage, improves conditions with the labor reform, raises pensions (especially the minimum ones) and avoids the adjustments that dominated the previous crisis, with the PP of Mariano Rajoy, a great reference for Alberto Núñez Feijóo, in La Moncloa.
The progressive government tends to ignore that the PSOE also made harsh cuts at the end of the second Executive of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, something that led the Socialists to the electoral debacle of 2011.
But the key to this campaign is to associate Feijóo with possible adjustments, privatizations and cuts to the welfare state in the face of a progressive government that is expanding it.
And there, the pension reform is decisive, as they understand in the two sectors of the Government.
In La Moncloa they are following Feijóo's movements very carefully.
And they want to force him to define himself, because they believe that if he did, he would make it clear that his bet is an adjustment in line with the one made by Rajoy in 2013, and that the PSOE and Unidas Podemos have repealed: the one that established a 0.25% increase of pensions if the State had a large deficit, something that would have been devastating with current inflation.
On Thursday, Escrivá, who does not usually get involved in political affairs, attacked the PP leader for his "lack of respect" by criticizing the reform without offering an alternative.
A political discussion on pensions would be a dream for a government that has just raised them by 8.5%.
An ideal space to contrast the "two models" that Sánchez talks about.
But, precisely for this reason, it is almost certain that Feijóo will avoid, as much as he can, entering that delicate field of play.
Subscribe to continue reading
Read without limits
Keep reading
I'm already a subscriber