The general secretary of Comisiones Obreras, Unai Sordo, has stated that the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, has no intention of calling early general elections and, in his opinion, it would not be convenient to do so either, since the "democratic priority" is to prevent the far-right from coming to power.
However, he specified this Thursday that this argument cannot serve as an excuse for everything and that the Executive is obliged to give "purpose" to the final stretch of the term.
"I'm going to say something outrageous that isn't said much. I am not in favor of elections being brought forward. I believe that legislatures should necessarily last four years, and it would change the incentive system for parties when it comes to tinkering with short-termism on many things," argued the union leader, thus defending institutional stability.
In this regard, he added that "I don't think the President is going to step down from the presidency, nor do I think he should. I believe he has to see out the rest of the legislature, but the Government has to give it a purpose," insisting that the cabinet must make the most of the remaining time with a clear agenda.
For Sordo, "The greatest democratic priority that any Spanish or European democrat has today is to prevent the forces of reaction of the far-right populism from coming to power. I say what I think: we are in a moment of democratic emergency worldwide," warning about the international political context.
"You cannot just govern to prevent the right from coming to power. But whoever does not see that we are in the greatest risk of democratic regression that we have experienced in the West since the end of the military dictatorships of the last century, well, I think they are not making a correct analysis of how the world is. And at this moment, I think it would also be a mistake, with that in perspective, to call elections," reinforcing his rejection of an early election.
Warning about the discourse of "national priority"
Unai Sordo made these remarks during his participation in the seminar organized this week by the Association of Journalists of Economic Information (APIE) and the Menéndez Pelayo International University (UIMP) in Santander.
In that forum, he has dwelled on the use of the term 'national priority' by Vox, and has warned that the far-right is building a "very dangerous" discursive framework in a scenario of "scarcity and a fight to the death metaphorically" for limited resources.
As he explained, the idea that "this is a fight in a lifeboat" has spread among broad layers of the middle classes, a view he describes as "absolutely despicable and neo-fascist in character, but with a certain political effectiveness, because there are the results".
Faced with that exclusionary logic, he proposes a change of focus: "I believe that the frame of reference must be changed. Instead of the lifeboat, the ship with everyone on board. There is not necessarily a dispute over scarcity. Contemporary societies can be infinitely more prosperous than the societies we have had a few years ago," he maintains, arguing that a more inclusive model is possible.
At the same time, he has remarked that "one thing is what is said and another is what one is willing to do. National priority is a questioning of citizenship rights," but he has stressed that the far-right will not "dispense with migrants in the coming years, because, among other things, they will not find people to exploit" in their factories, fields, and homes, he emphasized, denouncing the contradiction between their rhetoric and economic reality.