The First Vice President and Minister of Finance, María Jesús Montero, said goodbye this Wednesday to the control sessions of Congress —although she will continue to occupy her seat until the constitution of the Andalusian Parliament— assuring she feels “very satisfied” with the work carried out at the head of the Ministry of Finance and with having integrated an Executive “whose only concern has been the general well-being of all citizens”.
In this last control session before leaving the Government to run as a PSOE candidate in the Andalusian elections, the head of Finance has addressed some final words to the chamber and has offered a “positive” assessment of her trajectory in the Council of Ministers since her incorporation in 2018.
Montero has also taken advantage of her farewell to send a message to the Popular Party, which she sees as “disoriented”, demanding “that they stop lying, that they stop settling into the hoax, that they stop permanently attacking the political adversary and that they stop practicing an infantile policy like the one they are practicing”.
“I am left with a disoriented Popular Party, that doesn't know where it's going, that has a concept of what its task from the opposition must be that differs a lot from what I think and that has been in harassment and demolition from day one,” the minister lamented, underlining her disagreement with the ‘populars’’ strategy in this legislature.
The still first vice-president has addressed some words of recognition to the rest of the parliamentary groups for the support given to the Executive in these years and has urged her socialist bench to continue prioritizing the general interest. “And to them, you already know: they bark, so we ride,” she concluded pointing to the PP's seats, provoking a prolonged ovation from the PSOE deputies and the members of the Government present in the plenary session.
🔴 #PLENARY | María Jesús Montero (@mjmonteroc) bids farewell to the Congress of Deputies after the announcement of the regional elections in Andalusia: "And to them, you know: they bark; well, we ride."
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Defense of his management against the criticisms of the PP
During her speech, Montero has responded to the criticisms of the PP deputies regarding her management at the head of the Treasury. “Are you going to compare me with other Treasury ministers? Do you want to compare me with Mr. Rato, in jail? Do you want to compare me with Mr. Montoro, who is being investigated for using the BOE for his particular interests?”, she has replied to the ‘popular’ parliamentarian José Vicente Marí Bosó.
According to what the minister has argued, what bothers the Popular Party is that Spain is, in her opinion, the advanced country that is growing the most at the moment, something that, she has said, is reflected in the economic indicators. "There is no need to spread lies, behave yourselves in this Chamber, because the opposition you are doing is an opposition that leads you to absolute failure," she reproached them from the rostrum.
Montero has recalled that, with the PP governments, the number of Social Security affiliates was around 19 million, while currently the figure stands at 21.6 million. Likewise, she has stressed that the interprofessional minimum wage was 736 euros and that today it reaches 1,221 gross euros in fourteen payments.
“You manage economic crisis with precariousness, taking away rights from workers, with cuts to public services, trying, as always, for the middle and working class to bear the brunt of that. We ask for more effort from the highest incomes and protect families, households, SMEs and self-employed workers,” concluded the head of the Treasury, defending the model applied by the Government during these years.