The general secretary of Comisiones Obreras, Unai Sordo, has defended that "there is a party" in the general elections on the upcoming November 29, called this Monday by the president of the Government, Pedro Sánchez. In addition, he has expressed confidence that the space to the left of the Socialist Party (PSOE) will end up attending the electoral appointment united: "Without any doubt."
"If in the general elections what is at stake are material policies, policies related to salaries, public services, housing, the ecological sustainability of the country, the energy model, full employment, I believe that the left has an opportunity," he stated in an interview on 'La Noche en 24h', reported by Europa Press.
The leader of CCOO has pointed out that the fear of a Popular Party government with Vox "mobilizes if it is explained well and does not remain just a slogan." In his opinion, "they are not the fascisms of almost a century ago, but rather it is an attempt at first-order democratic pruning," and he insisted that "it cannot be caricatured" what he has described as "an anti-democratic horde" that threatens "societies like the Spanish one."
Regarding the confluence of the left, Sordo has emphasized that the formations situated to the left of the PSOE "will reach some kind of consensus" and "will compete in terms (...) of electoral competitiveness without any doubt" for "a matter of historical responsibility."
When asked if "someone" has contacted him to lead that political space, he attributed it to "rumorology" and emphasized that "there are screens that are already passing" and that he will "continue being" the "the highest responsible for the largest social trade union organization that exists in Spain."
General strike and assessment of the Government's policies
In relation to the general strike announced this Monday by UGT and CCOO in light of the housing crisis, Sordo has explained that it is planned for "early November" and that "it is not a strike properly against the government, it does not respond to any reform."
"It responds to a situation, a series of decrees decline, we have a situation of inflation, frozen wages, and we have a country where a progressive government governs the central state," he reported, before emphasizing that "Spain is a composed state where the autonomous communities have a fundamental role, for example, in housing policy or in the partial privatization policy of public services."
In this line, he has highlighted that "pensions are being revalued according to inflation" and that this has prevented "ten or eleven million people" from losing "purchasing power in recent years with extremely high inflation."
"How are we going to strike against a 66% increase in the interprofessional minimum wage? It would be foolish," responded the general secretary of UGT. "I believe that economic and labor policies in Spain have worked," he defended.
At the same time, he admitted that "the growth" of the country "has not been distributed enough" and pointed to the responsibility in the lack of improvement of wages, although he highlighted that, in general terms, the measures of the Executive have been "positive" for the union.