In his first electoral rally in Madrid, in the great socialist stronghold in the south of the region, Fuenlabrada, the Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, has set himself the objective of mobilizing especially two sectors of the population whom Moncloa, with its sheet of route, has marked as priorities in recent months: young people and the elderly. The two ends of the population pyramid are the ones that the socialist leader has sought to capitalize on in his speech.
Because, coinciding with book day and with a visit to a local bookstore, Sánchez has started his intervention at the Tomás y Valiente Art Center citing the 400-euro bonus for cultural spending by young people. As the president has remarked, this bonus is “empowering” that population group that “many times feel alienated from the political debate when they read the written press and approach the news.” “It is important and relevant that with public resources they are aware that they have the ability to decide”, he pointed out.
But cultural aid is not the only government action that the socialist leader has waved towards young people, a group where the PSOE suffers electorally. Also the housing policy, as Moncloa has been doing all week with the approval of the Housing Law and the announcement of the construction of an ICO line to build 43,000 social rental homes and the delivery of 50,000 Sareb homes, have featured in his speech. “We are going to return the apartments that the right wing bought to rescue the banks in the previous economic crisis, and in particular to the young people of our country,” said the president, who described the age of emancipation of the Spanish in comparison to other European countries.
“The right considers housing a luxury good and we a basic necessity,” said Sánchez, who has accused the PP of causing “speculation, corruption and the ruin of many families when the real estate bubble burst” and added that “his economic miracle landed everyone in jail.” “We are not going to talk about miracles or that Spain is doing well, but we are going to say loud and clear that the PSOE manages the economy much better than the PP because we defend the interest of the majority and not of a privileged few,” he said. pointed out before sliding a criticism of the Government of the Community of Madrid, whom he has pointed out for “selling public housing to the vulture funds”.
From young people and housing, Sánchez has gone to the other end of society, the elderly, with the pension reform promoted by Minister José Luis Escrivá, ensuring that this reform “reconstructs the Toledo Pact with respect” and generates ” social peace”. “Remember that they were talking about a hot autumn, with the people in the streets against the government, and this country is the one with the best and greatest social peace in all of Europe,” he stated.
The President of the Government has also placed Health, Education, Dependency, pensions and Housing as “the five pillars of the Welfare State” and has stressed that “the five have the stamp of the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party”. “On May 28 it will be decided whether we want governments for the majority or for a privileged few,” he pointed out before placing his Executive as a “feminist” reference in “real equality between men and women”, but without making a single mention to the Law of Only Yes is Yes or to its reform, approved together with the PP.
Finally, Sánchez has taken advantage of the controversy of the Junta de Andalucía with the Doñana Irrigation Law to charge against the PP, indicating that it is a “denialist” party. “Vox denies the effects of climate change and the PP does not deny it, but acts as if it did not exist. Some by action and others by omission are climate change deniers,” concluded the president, accompanied by the Interior Minister, Fernando Grande Marlaska; the candidate for Madrid City Council, Reyes Maroto; the mayor of Fuenlabrada, Javier Ayala, and the general secretary of the PSOE-M, Juan Lobato, among the 1,000 attending the event, the Tomás y Valiente Art Center, where another 500 have not had a place.
Lobato also pointed, in his speech, towards the PP, describing its leaders as “catastrophists” and adding that the PSOE is not resigned and rebels “against Madrid getting worse”. “The PP has always done the same with all the socialist presidents, Felipe González, Zapatero and even with Rubalcaba who was not president. Always with the attack, the demolition, the insults and trying to discredit us with lies”, he remarked before giving him a gift to the president, for Book Day, a copy of The Art of Patience, by Ramiro A. Calle, because, as he has highlighted, he has “more patience than holy Job”.
Along the same lines as Sánchez, Lobato has questioned “the young and the old” especially with the approval of the Housing Law. “It has been a very intense year and we have a huge challenge in Madrid with the elderly and housing. I want to thank our president that for the first time in the history of Democracy we have a State Housing Law that truly addresses this challenge”, has remarked.
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