The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, has urged this Wednesday the leader of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, to make public how much he or his party pays for the rent of the house where he resides in the Madrid neighborhood of El Viso. Minutes later, the popular leader has specified that the cost of the dwelling is assumed together with the mother of his son and has remarked that his father-in-law "has not gifted him any apartment".
During the control session to the Government in the Plenary of Congress, Feijóo has defended that "one of the main obligations of a public servant is to pay taxes" and has questioned Sánchez about whether he has already filed "the income and wealth tax return", alluding indirectly to the gifts a president may receive after the discovery of jewels in the office of former president José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero.
In his response, the head of the Executive has offered: "If you want, today, I will file it with you, we will make it public and thus we will find out how much you or your party pays for the rent of the dwelling you have in El Viso".
Exchange of reproaches in Congress
In his turn, the president of the PP has criticized that Sánchez reacts "like this" when the Government already has his income tax return through the Tax Agency. He has underlined that he was not asking him because he "suspects he has something undeclared". "Although it would not be too much to review it," he added, bringing up his numerous "trips abroad".
Feijóo has explained that he was alluding to the tax campaign because these days taxpayers are "complying" with the Treasury. Immediately after, he has denounced that "the Treasury has not complied with its obligations in the last three years", in reference to the absence of new General State Budgets (PGE) so far in the legislature.
The leader of the opposition has insisted that this should be the last question of the legislature and "not the last question of the session", recalling that the last accounts approved by Sánchez date back to when Joe Biden was already president of the USA and Pope Francis was in the Vatican.
The El Viso dwelling and transparency
In his second intervention, Sánchez once again urged Feijóo to clarify "how much he pays for his house in El Viso," referring to it as an issue that "has appeared in the media." Furthermore, he stressed that he is not the one who keeps his income tax return, but rather the Tax Agency, and warned that "institutional degradation is contributed to by this type of information."
"What interests me is knowing how much you or your party pays. How much do you pay? After all, you are the champion of transparency and I am convinced that you will not have a problem, when it comes out or later, in telling us exactly how much you pay," Sánchez launched at Feijóo from the rostrum.
Once outside the hemicycle, when asked if he had been surprised by Sánchez's allusions to his home in El Viso, Feijóo assured that he was "surprised" that the head of the Executive reveals to citizens where he lives, emphasizing that he has "a nine-year-old son." "Does he think I'm like him? No," he concluded.
Immediately afterwards, he insisted that he and his partner pay for the home. "I pay for it and my son's mother. But how far can he go? My father-in-law hasn't given me any apartment," he emphasized, in reference to the house where Sánchez and Begoña Gómez resided, acquired by the president's wife's father.
Sources from Moncloa later demanded that the leader of the PP offer explanations "to see if the apartment is taxed and if he continues to collect allowances and supplements," alluding to the "extra salary" that Feijóo received when he moved to Madrid after assuming the presidency of the PP.
In June 2023, the PSOE already asked to clarify if Feijóo was receiving any "extra salary." At that time, PP sources indicated that he received 39,260 euros for "representation expenses" from his party, apart from his remuneration as a senator.
Budgets, checkbook and end of legislature
In the control question, Feijóo maintained that "nobody" believes anymore that Sánchez will pass new state accounts, despite his announcements. He accused the Government of mounting "a propaganda operation by taking out the checkbook for everything" and asked if he believes that citizens "can be bribed" as, he said, they do in the PSOE.
The opposition leader has assured that "there is no checkbook that can save the end of this Government". "Nobody believes it anymore. Can he really still promise something to the young person looking for that home, to the mother who says she cannot have more children, to the two million Spaniards who are still on strike with the doctors after more than a year?", he reiterated.
He also warned Sánchez that "there are no partners who can eternally rescue him from this degradation". "There is no synchronized opinion that can cover up this agony," he stated, before maintaining that Spain "needs to move from a government of corruption to a government of management" and that he is willing to offer it.
Defense of social policies
For his part, the President of the Government has asked the leader of the PP not to claim that "public policies linked to social protection are to buy the will of citizens".
"On the contrary, this has nothing to do with a political philosophy of transaction, it has to do with deep convictions, that social cohesion, territorial cohesion, the strengthening of the welfare state and the construction of rights and freedoms make societies much more prosperous and just, exactly what the PP does not do where it governs, or exactly what they did not do when they governed this country after the financial crisis and their neoliberal response," he concluded.