The Secretary General of the Communist Party of Spain (PCE), Enrique Santiago, has emphasized the "responsibility" that his formation and IU assume in the launch of the new "broad front" of the parties that make up the minority partner of the coalition Executive.
With these words, he referred to the new electoral brand with which, presumably, the forces situated in the minority wing of the Government will compete in the general elections scheduled for 2027.
At the same time, he has claimed the presence of the alternative left in the coalition cabinet, which he attributes as the engine of the social advances of the legislature, and has demanded that the PSOE react without delay to tackle the housing problem and the crisis in Ceuta.
Santiago has intervened in the central rally of the PCE Festival, which is being held this weekend in the Madrid town of Rivas Vaciamadrid, where he has insisted on the importance of building a unified political space of the alternative left.
In this regard, he has emphasized that IU and the PCE are the organizations with the greatest territorial and sectoral presence within that space, and for this reason, they have "the greatest responsibility when it comes to organizing" that broad front to the left, referring to the electoral brand agreed with Movimiento Sumar, Más Madrid, and Comuns.
A "historic block" against the reactionary wave
Santiago has argued that the "experience and prestige" of the PCE in the fight against fascism should serve as the "engine of the necessary historic block" of the left, insisting that, to successfully confront capital and the current reactionary wave, social mobilization and political organization are needed.
He has recalled that all the regional elections held since the previous PCE Festival have been won by the PP and have led to governments with Vox, whose programs "tune in" to cut the rights of the working class.
"Difficult times are coming, the reactionary wave has weakened the popular movement and the new expressions of the alternative left that emerged from the mobilizations against the economic crisis in the first decade of this century," he has warned, in a veiled allusion to Podemos.
On the other hand, the leader of the PCE has supported the management of the coalition Government, despite the limitations derived from an unfavorable correlation of forces with the PSOE, and has indicated that this is the reason why he has become the "enemy to beat" for the President of the United States, Donald Trump, and the "global reactionary forces".
In his opinion, the alternative left has been able to take advantage of its presence in the Executive to expand social and labor rights. "We do not ignore the many problems that the working class suffers and that we have not been able to solve," he has acknowledged, adding that the Spanish Constitution "is not democratic enough" while there are economic and media powers that decide "outside the will of the people expressed democratically at the polls".
Despite this, Santiago has assured that the PCE "does not renounce anything" and will continue to fight to achieve "deeper social transformations", and, in particular, to alleviate the "high cost of living" that the popular classes suffer due to inflation and "speculation" with housing.
Criticism of the PSOE for housing and denunciation of the crisis in Ceuta
In this area, he has directly pointed to the PSOE as "responsible" for the Government not yet having adopted "the essential measures to solve it" and has demanded an effective system of guarantee of social rights and public services, with "constitutional changes if necessary".
Regarding the crisis in Ceuta, Santiago has described the situation as a "hybrid attack" and a "destabilization operation" orchestrated by the United States and Israel, using Morocco and with the "incredible ignorance" of the Spanish intelligence services.
He has also accused the PP and Vox of collaborating in this destabilizing dynamic and has denounced that "they do not care at all" about the Ceuta population or the situation of the migrant people used against Spain who remain "abandoned to their fate".
Therefore, the communist leader demands the transfer of these people to the Peninsula and has demanded that the PSOE authorize it to put an end to a crisis that, in his opinion, fuels the campaign of the far-right, which turns Ceuta into its "theme park" of fascism and racism.
During his intervention, he warned that the right despises the "rules of democracy" and that, since the formation of the current Executive, "destabilization has been permanent," with a "coup strategy" that he attributes to former president José María Aznar, whom he qualifies as the "criminal of the Azores," in coordination with the international reaction of the United States and Israel against the positions of the Government.
Likewise, he has attacked a "very influential minority of the Judiciary," which he refers to as the "party of the robes," that with a "clear political bias" would have been "attacking and harassing the left and the Government."
"Our advances have made us earn many and powerful enemies for defending peace and opposing NATO's rearmament demanded by the US," he pointed out, adding that these reactionary sectors "conspire to end the only Government in the EU that makes leftist policies."
International positioning and future of the PCE
On the international level, Santiago has defended the right to self-determination of the Sahrawi people and has denounced the "plunder by the United States and Israel with the peoples of the Middle East." He has accused the "criminal" government of Benjamin Netanyahu of wanting to make the Palestinian state "unviable" and has demanded the "end of the genocide" in Gaza.
He has also demanded the release of former Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro, stating that he has been "kidnapped" by the US, and has denounced that the country has been "intervened, deprived of its sovereignty, and its resources plundered by Trump."
Similarly, he has expressed his "admiration" for the "heroic people of Cuba," who, he said, are waging an "exemplary battle of resistance" against "the collective punishment and the silent genocide imposed" by the United States. In his opinion, the lack of reaction from the international community to the situation on the island "shames."
In the internal sphere of the party, Santiago has pointed out that the next congress of the PCE, scheduled for December, should serve to open a project for the construction of the organization for the next decade. "The policy of alliances and the construction of the Party are not opposing paths; they are two dimensions of the same transformation strategy," he concluded.