The President of the Government and PSOE candidate for re-election in the next general elections, Pedro Sánchez, has appealed to the “mobilization of the public” and has urged people to go to the polls to strengthen the democratic process, taking as a reference the high turnout recorded in Brazil and the United States.
“We are going to win this party, but it hasn’t been won yet. And to win it we need the mobilization of the public,” he said in an interview in “La Vanguardia” broadcast by Europa Press this Sunday, in which he insisted that in Spain has shown in the last 8 years that there is an alternative to “cuts, the chain saw, and hatred.”
He has expressed confidence in the electoral outcome and has emphasized that “the reactionary wave that Feijóo and Abascal want to ride is being dismantled,” while accusing the right and far right of betting on the demobilization of the electorate, against which he has once again insisted on the importance of going to vote.
“The PP pays it” and the Koldo case
With regard to the statements by the former advisor to the Ministry of Transport Koldo García, who said that from the PP they offered him money in exchange for information to help overthrow the Executive, Sánchez has pointed out that it is the party of Alberto Núñez Feijóo “that is the one that must be required to give an explanation.”
“It gives the impression that that order Aznar gave—that whoever can do it should do it—had then a little add-on, which is that it’s because the PP pays it,” he added, while at the same time calling for respect and the utmost collaboration with the justice system.
High-speed rail and the 11N strike
Regarding the situation of Spain’s rail network, he explained that during his time in office three major challenges were tackled: “a very clear underfunding in maintenance and in investments during the financial crisis,” the territorial demands to extend high-speed rail, and the obligation to increase the resources allocated to infrastructure and to its upkeep.
Asked about the general strike called for November 11, Sánchez stressed that “it’s not a strike against anyone, but in favor of providing common answers by all administrations to a real problem that exists, which is that of access to housing.”
It has highlighted the evolution of the Spanish economy in economic, labor and financial terms, and has specified that the underlying debate is “how” to distribute growth among citizens, address the housing crisis, strengthen the welfare state and improve regional (autonomous) financing.
Relationship with Junts and situation in Catalonia
As for Catalonia, it has defended that the amnesty is an instrument designed for Catalonia’s entire society and has argued that the measures promoted to channel the conflict have been well received, citing as an example the presidency of the Generalitat of Salvador Illa and the “assimilation of the independentist parties of putting other policies and objectives before secession”.
It has acknowledged that with Junts they have agreed “on some policies and on others in which they have not,” and has underlined that the decree-law on housing has been a recurring axis throughout the entire legislature.