The president of the Government and candidate for re-election, Pedro Sánchez, has defended this Saturday "good politics" which, as he has said, the Socialists have driven forward over the last eight years against "bad education" that he attributes to the PP and Vox, and he has urged people to fill the ballot boxes on next 29 November to stop the "regression" and the "chainsaw" that, in his view, both of these formations embody.
He delivered this message at a rally held in Palma de Mallorca, accompanied by the president of the Congress and the PSOE’s top candidate for the Balearics, Francina Armengol, in a venue handed over to its leader. Among the attendees, a banner was displayed with the slogan "La Peter lo peta", which the candidate showed with pride to the public.
Dressed, as has been customary, in the T-shirt bearing the PSOE slogan for these elections, "The Force of the People" (in its version in Mallorcan), Sánchez began his address by contrasting his party’s "good politics" with the "bad education" of Alberto Núñez Feijóo and Santiago Abascal. He accused them of trying to "impose" "insult," "noise," and "lack of arguments" on those, like the PSOE, who propose solutions to the country’s problems.
Criticism of Ayuso and defense of social policies
For Sánchez, "good politics" consists of offering answers, raising the Minimum Interprofessional Wage (SMI), revaluing pensions, or pushing forward a labor reform that has made it possible to reach 22.6 million affiliates to Social Security. By contrast, he considers that "bad education" is "calling cancer on sick leave, as Feijóo does," posing with Abascal while they announce that they are going to review gender policies for being an "unnecessary" expense, or calling unions "garbage," as did the president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso.
"Good politics bears fruit and we leave bad education to those who say 'I like the fruit,'" Sánchez summed up, in a new veiled reference to Ayuso. He called for 75% participation on the 29th so that the Socialists can achieve an absolute majority that stops what, in his view, Feijóo and Abascal embody: "regression" and the "chainsaw".
"They represent the same insults, the same lies, the same cuts as the family they belong to, which is the international far-right led by Trump, Milei, Bolsonaro, Le Pen, Meloni and Orban," the socialist leader has denounced, before asking his own whether they want for Spain what they do not want for the world.
Sánchez has shown himself convinced that on November 29 Spain will defeat the "involution" of Feijóo and Abascal, whom he has blamed for not having taken advantage of these years to prepare a solid alternative.
Attacks on Feijóo and Abascal and call for the vote
In the case of Feijóo, he has taken him to task for suspending in English, "because he hasn't made the effort," and in economics, "for confusing risk premium with interest rate," to conclude that in the end "it will be true that he's not president because he doesn't want to be." Even so, he has wished that at least he manages to get Education for Citizenship approved and to assume on the 29th that the PSOE will win the elections.
The socialist candidate has also gone after Abascal, whom he has criticized for not talking about pensions because "he's not an economist," for avoiding going on programs "where he doesn't control the public," or for receiving a letter of support from the "top" of European far right, such as Orban, Le Pen or Salvini. "Abascal represents an ultra who doesn't flinch, not the Spain that wakes up early," he has added.
Against this, Sánchez has reiterated his commitment to protecting pensions and their revaluation in the Constitution, has set against Abascal's aspiration to be "vice president" in a possible Feijóo government with his backing for Carlos Cuerpo, and has demanded the support of those who "truly" want "more Europe." "We want a Europe formed by a Government that says 'no' to Trump's war in Iran and 'yes' to the human rights of the Palestinians and to Ukraine's freedom to choose its path, or one that doesn't spend 5% of GDP on Defense," as the president of the United States has said, he has pointed out.
Management performance and housing at the center of the debate
During his speech, the president went over the milestones of his administration that he feels "proud" of: the expansion of paternity and maternity leave permits, the increase in the SMI, the strengthening of support for dependency, the rise in scholarships and FP places, as well as the results of his bet on renewable energies.
Although he has admitted that "there is still a lot to do", he has included in that assessment the so-called "Maricarmen decree", validated this Thursday by the Standing Committee of the Congress with the rejection of PP and Vox. He has challenged them about what objection they have not to back measures that, in his view, are "common sense".
At this point, Sánchez criticized that Feijóo "endorses" the purchase of the "big government housing project" from the Madrid government and votes against the housing decree. "His housing policy is to laugh at people, and we are not going to allow that," he stressed.
He has also accused the PP leader of having "a short memory", insisting that he did not know that Marcial Dorado was a "drug trafficker" and pointing out that he must be "the only person in Galicia who did not know who Marcial Dorado was".
Democratic memory and the objective of an absolute majority
Along the same lines, he reproached Abascal for, in a recent interview, stating that he had no position on Francisco Franco, while he claims that "Sánchez is a dictator". "Those who have no position on Franco turn out to want to repeal the Law of Democratic Memory and have prevented the grandchildren of the republicans in exile from being able to vote in the elections," he added.
Sánchez closed his remarks by assuring that the PSOE will win in the Congress and in the Senate on November 29, but he called for mobilization to achieve 75% turnout that will make it possible to reach at least 176 seats and achieve an absolute socialist majority that consolidates new social advances. "I ask you to doubt the shirt up until the last moment and vote with force to win and govern for another four years," he proclaimed.