The Minister of Science, Innovation and Universities and General Secretary of the PSPV-PSOE, Diana Morant, stated this Saturday that the socialists "are going to win" the general elections on November 29 "because we have a winning project, which is that of Pedro Sánchez, a president who for eight years has made this country progress and who paints us a country that excites compared to a country that scares, that of (Alberto Núñez) Feijóo and his partner in the Comunitat Valenciana and his foreseeable partner at the moment he arrives at Moncloa, which would be (Santiago) Abascal."
Morant also warned that "Feijóo arrived here yesterday --in València-- and we already know who from El Ventorro is going to be the candidate of the PP" for the Congress of Deputies. "And I say who from El Ventorro because El Ventorro is a political category: Mrs. (María José) Catalá was not there on the day of the dana." The socialist leader made these statements in Alcoi (Alicante), a day after it was announced that the mayor of València will head the PP list for Valencia to Congress for the elections on November 29.
In this context, she recalled that "València is the second city in the Comunitat Valenciana with the most deaths in the dana of the year 2024 and Mrs. Catalá, while her neighbors were still pulling mud from their homes, was turning on lights and a fireworks display celebrating Christmas as if nothing had happened." In her opinion, Catalá is "a person who has not been there for the citizens of València nor for the citizens of the comarca, who has not acted as mayor of the Valencian capital," while she praised the former government delegate and head of the PSPV-PSOE list to Congress for Valencia, Pilar Bernabé, of whom she said has acted as "mayor of the province."
Morant emphasized that María José Catalá "is more of the same" as the former president of the Generalitat and head of the Consell during the dana, Carlos Mazón. "Mrs. Catalá spent a year applauding Mazón," she stated, before adding that "and yesterday they got together again to applaud themselves," referring to Feijóo's rally in València where the PP leader claimed he would never forget the dana. "Neither will we. Nor are we going to forget who are the culprits of the 233 deaths," she replied.
According to Morant, "among them, him. He has been covering for Mazón and his lies from the very first moment. Mr. Feijóo, just like Mrs. Catalá, all knew from the very first moment that Mazón had lied and that the Generalitat had not done the work it was supposed to do to safeguard those lives." The minister has also pointed out that "we know this because Mrs. Catalá is in a Whatsapp group that we have learned about thanks to the court in Catarroja, with which it is clearly known that Mrs. Catalá also did nothing to safeguard the lives of the residents of Valencia." "If they already failed us once, why are we going to trust them in the future?" she has asked, to conclude: "Certainly, neither Catalá nor Feijóo nor the Popular Party of the Valencian Community are good for us."
"Debates from other times, from Francoism" and risk of regression
On the other hand, the socialist leader has warned, "in the worst case of all, which is not going to happen," that a hypothetical government with Feijóo as president and Abascal as vice president would make Spain "regress 40 years" and would put "in question" rights conquered "by women, by pensioners or by workers, with the suppression of the Ministry of Equality, with the suppression of rights acquired by women for many years, such as the right to decide about our own motherhood and about our own body."
Morant has emphasized that "we are talking about regressing 40 years, about debates that certainly women of my age have not known." "My mother has told me about this, they are debates from another time, from the Francoist era, when women in our country if they wanted to have an abortion had to go to London or to other countries," she has explained. In her opinion, Spain "hand in hand with the socialists, with different socialist presidents, also with Sánchez" has decisively advanced "in the rights of women, in the rights of pensioners, who today have a dignified, sufficient pension and also a commitment and a guarantee to continue improving those pensions by law, a law that the Popular Party voted against."
The minister has also recalled that "we live in a country that has also advanced in the rights of workers, with the interprofessional minimum wage, the right to have an indefinite job thanks to the labor reform that has also been made by the Government of Pedro Sánchez." However, she has warned that "all of that is once again in question," and has accused PP officials who "speak without thinking" and "end up saying what they really think," of "also questioning the rights of workers, the right to medical leave and that it is the mutuals that decide whether we have to return to our job or not regardless of whether we are sick or not." "What country is the right offering us? What country is Feijóo offering us?" she has posed.
Recovering the Comunitat Valenciana and defending Sánchez's management
Regarding the Comunitat Valenciana, Morant has ironized by stating that she is "absolutely in agreement" with Feijóo that in this autonomy "the real change will begin throughout Spain," but to emphasize that, according to her, that change will be in a progressive key: the socialists "are going to win these elections on November 29 alongside President Pedro Sánchez and we are also going to win in May 2027 because we are going to recover the Comunitat Valenciana." "We are going to demonstrate that the Socialist Party and the people are capable of ousting PP and Vox and we are going to do it from here, from the Comunitat Valenciana," she has maintained.
The minister has cited as an example that "the Government of Spain is the one that has ensured and guaranteed the work of thousands of Ford workers in Almussafes," and has emphasized that Sánchez, "in contrast to the PP of El Ventorro, is working every day for the Valencians and, of course, whenever we need him, he is here."