The campaign spokesman of Sumar, Ernest Urtasun, has defended this Monday at a press conference the proposal launched the day before by the leader of the candidacy, Yolanda Díaz, to create a universal aid of 20,000 euros for training or entrepreneurship, which would receive, only once, young people who each year reached the age of majority (although the money would be charged five years later: when they turn 23). In a last-minute interview on Telecinco, the second vice president of the Government has announced that the measure would affect some 490,000 young people this year and 484,000 in 2024. Sumar sources add that at the end of the legislature it would cover more than 2.4 million people. The proposal, one of the star promises of the program of the new left-wing coalition, had been questioned this morning by the first vice president of the Government, Nadia Calviño, who suggested that it is not in line with a "responsible" fiscal policy. Urtasun has claimed it, ensuring that it already appeared in the Spain 2050 document, prepared by La Moncloa and presented in style by President Pedro Sánchez in May 2021: "The issue of universal inheritance was a measure included in the prospective project towards the year 2050. I do not know if Mrs. Calviño had anything to do, but I imagine she did, "said the also MEP of Unidas Podemos. Diaz has also been confident that within some time, the economic vice president will accept it, as well as the increase in the minimum wage, the leader of Sumar has pointed out.
"Whoever proposes measures that consist of giving subsidies, aid, well, without any type of restriction or level of income or a specific objective, has to explain how they would finance it, because in the coming years we have to continue with a responsible fiscal policy," Nadia Calviño had said hours before on TVE, without entering into the specific initiative. The president of the employers' association, Antonio Garamendi, has claimed, in the same line, that "certain proposals are made more seriously". "It's exactly 9 billion euros. 000,6 million is the budget of the Ministry of Education and Training for this year. And 000,3 million, if you look at the accounts of the State, is the Health budget. That measure means as much as the Ministry of Education and Health together, "he added. From Anticapitalistas, a political organization that was once part of Podemos, they have also criticized the measure considering that it will incite young people to compete. Its spokesman, Raúl Camargo, has affirmed that it is a proposal "typical of liberal currents that advocate the 'culture of entrepreneurship' individual."
"This unequal distribution of inheritances decisively affects equity among young generations. A novel proposal to help prevent this phenomenon from worsening in the future is the possible creation of a universal public heritage; an economic endowment that all young people in the country would receive once they reached a certain age," read the Moncloa document.
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Sumar, which for now does not specify how many people it will affect each year, proposes this measure to reduce inequality between high-income families and low-income families and help young people in three different ways: labor insertion, business entrepreneurship or training. The coalition led by Yolanda Díaz details that the Public Administration would accompany the young beneficiary from 18 to 23 years to supervise compliance with the plan, and it would be at the end of that process, when the young man turns 23, when the payment would be formalized. Urtasun has specified that in no case would it be retroactive, but that it would be a new right for young people who reach that age from the approval of the measure.
The economic team of Sumar justifies the amount of 20,000 euros in which it is "financially acceptable" and argues that a lower amount would not be enough to affect the economic life of young people. The initiative would cost about 10,000 million euros per year for the public coffers, with an impact of 0.8% of GDP, and would be financed through a new tax on large fortunes and a general tax reform that makes the tax system "more progressive", according to the proposal document. The burden would be "similar" to that of the update of pensions to the CPI this year in Spain. In the text, the formation defends that it is a "realistic and acceptable" proposal and stresses that important economists such as Tony Atkinson or Thomas Piketty have been raising it for years.
Urtasun has not clarified in which year of the legislature the initiative could be launched, which, in any case, would have to be negotiated within that hypothetical coalition government with the PSOE.
The party led by Díaz has presented on Monday its campaign slogan for 23-J: "It's for you." "We want to do a campaign based on people and their concerns, very focused on proposals. Not a plebiscite on any politician or [a campaign] self-centered on them," the spokesman said. In the case of a new brand – the agreement between the 16 formations that make up the coalition was forged less than a month ago – which must still be announced, Sumar has designed a particularly "intense" campaign, with 19 displacements of Yolanda Díaz since Tuesday, according to party sources. The idea, they point out, is to cover practically the entire territory. The second vice president of the Government will start on Thursday in A Coruña, her homeland, in a rally with the leader of Catalonia in Comú and former mayor of Barcelona, Ada Colau, "a reference of municipalism", and the closing of the campaign will be in Madrid.
A "universal inheritance" of 20,000 euros when they reach the age of majority will be a new right that helps young people to continue training, start their professional career and become independent.
It will be a springboard that promotes the freedom to choose your path in life.
Let👇 me explain.
— Yolanda Diaz (@Yolanda_Diaz_) July 3, 2023
Díaz will hold two events with the general secretary of Podemos, Ione Belarra, in Navarra and Madrid (the Minister of Social Rights is the number five of the candidacy for the capital), and as many with most of the leaders of the parties that are integrated in Sumar. No meeting of the vice president with the Minister of Equality, Irene Montero, who was left out of the lists, or with Pablo Iglesias is contemplated. Among the places on the provisional agenda are Valencia, Seville, Cadiz, Zaragoza and other major provincial capitals. On Tuesday, the vice president will travel to Tenerife, where she will share the stage with the spokesman of Drago Canarias, Alberto Rodríguez, former number three of Podemos.
"The left goes out to win"
Regarding the surveys published this Monday in different media, Urtasun has affirmed that "nothing is written on 23-J". The June barometer of 40dB. for EL PAÍS and the SER gives the coalition led by Vice President Yolanda Díaz 13% of the vote (35 seats, the same deputies that Unidas Podemos obtained in 2019) and places the formation in fourth position behind Vox, which would reach 15%. The decrease compared to the previous survey is partly due to the improvement of the PSOE, which would recover half of its former voters who chose Sumar in the previous study. "The left goes out to win and that is being noticed," said the spokesman. Alluding to other polls, he added that the data place Sumar "in third place and with the ability to get good results." The 40dB study. indicates that the right-wing bloc would lose six deputies, going from the 174 of the previous barometer to 168, which, adding UPN and Coalición Canaria – with whom the popular ones have just agreed to govern together in the Canary Islands – would be 170, six below the absolute majority. The one on the left would gather 146, that is, five more than in the previous poll, which brings the socialist part to the bloc.
It receives every afternoon the bulletin Diario de elecciones, with the analysis of Ricardo de Querol, deputy director, and Luis Barbero, editor-in-chief editor.
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