​Press conference by the President of the Government after the NATO Summit

Warsaw

President of the Government: Ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon and thank you very much for coming.

I am appearing again before you all to set out the results of the NATO Summit that the allies are holding here in Warsaw. It is the third I have attended since I have been President of the Government.

Two years ago, in Wales, at the height of the crisis in Ukraine and with concern about the expansion of DAESH in Iraq and Syria, the heads of state and government of NATO arrived at a commitment to deal with all the challenges that threaten the periphery of our territory, both in the East and the South. This commitment led to the strategy that here in Warsaw has been dubbed "NATO at 360 degrees": we are concerned about the East, but also the South.

In Wales we adopted decisions such as the plan of action to improve the response capacity of the Alliance and measures to reassure our allies in Eastern Europe. And we are also committed to stopping the decline in Defence budgets. I should say that Spain has more than complied in these years with the commitments. It has complied in terms of solidarity, deploying aircraft in two four-month periods for the Baltic Air Policing mission in 2015 and 2016: this year we also led the permanent allied naval force in the Baltic; we protect the Turkish population with our Patriot missiles; in 2015 we were the host nation for the biggest army in NATO in recent decades; and we are heading up the Brigade of the Joint Force Very High Availability, for which, as you know, we have deployed more than 1,300 personnel here in Poland recently.

Spain has also complied as a trustworthy ally in the NATO operations in Afghanistan and the Mediterranean, where our ships have taken part since its start in the Active Endeavour operation, now transformed into operation Sea Guardian. We have also complied with the commitment undertaken in Wales to detain the trend of declining Defence budgets over these years. We should all be aware of the need to invest in security.

To sum up, we have done what we said we would do.

Now in Warsaw, the heads of state and government have taken a further step forward based on respect for the basic principles of the Alliance: unity between allies and determination to adapt to new challenges at a crucial time for our security. We have done so, first of all, by approving an initiative to strengthen dissuasion and defence, whose approach is 360 degrees, in other words it looks East but also to the South, and offers various forms of collective defence. I am referring, for example to the battalions that will be deployed in Poland and the Baltic states, to improve our adaptation to new forms of conflict, not only military - the so-called "hybrid war" - and also the analysis of the scenarios of instability that allow us to anticipate future crises.

Second, we have approved an initiative for the protection of stability beyond our borders. It is a form of supporting the most vulnerable neighbours, particularly on the southern flank, so that they can be capable of taking responsibility for their own security, because our security also depends on theirs. This is a priority for our country and is fully consistent with the strategy we have been developing in the heart of the European Union, in the United Nations, and bilaterally with many of our southern neighbours.

You have heard me speak on many occasions of the need of greater political stability and development in Africa. Well, this principle, which has been one of the priorities of our foreign policy, is a perfect match for the conclusions of this Summit.

We have also talked about Afghanistan with the partners that participate in the operation, with the presence of President Ghani. Despite the progress made in the last year and the effort in the Government's reconciliation process, the presence of NATO troops as currently deployed is still necessary. That is why we have decided to prolong the mission beyond 2016, thus reaffirming our political commitment to Afghanistan, with the desire that the Afghanis themselves should be fully responsible for their security.

Relations with Russia and the crisis in Ukraine were recurring topics in the debates at yesterday's dinner, and we will speak of it again in the NATO-Ukraine Committee that is being held next. NATO's common position is that these relations are based on a combination of dissuasion and dialogue. We should not forget that Russia is our most important neighbour and a key player in many international scenarios. President Poroshenko of Ukraine will receive from the allies our firmest support, which will be translated into an integrated package of assistance, of support to the Armed Forces.

In short, the result of this Summit is a NATO that is more united, stronger and better prepared, with a greater capacity for adapting to face the complex security situation around us.

Finally, and to conclude, I would like to recall and congratulate our more than 2,000 compatriots, civil guards and police that are deployed in missions abroad, because it is these people and their families that are most affected by the decisions we take here, and because it is they who are responsible for carrying out the actions we propose to protect our values, our citizens and our territory. With their good work and commitment, they help make the name of Spain great around the world.

This was what I wanted to tell you. I am now at your disposal.

Question: Mr President of the Government, this morning the Federal Committee of the PSOE held its expected meeting. Pedro Sánchez has already announced that he wants to head the opposition and that he will vote "no" to your investiture. We would like to know if you think that this position will be inflexible, and in this case, if there is a alternative, some majority, some agreement for a government, that could total 169 with Ciudadanos, or 170 if you also include Coalición Canaria.

President of the Government: Clearly, this issue has not been dealt with in the NATO Summit, but as you have asked me, I'll have to answer, won't I?

The Spanish people have voted and they have done so for the second time in the last six or seven months. They have voted for what every Spanish person has considered best for their country and for themselves. That is a fact. And given that, no one wants to repeat elections, which is a matter of simple common sense. It would be foolish, and something that we would never forget, to hold a new general election once more. I would like to recall that this is the first time that elections have been repeated in Spain since elections began in the modern era in 1977.

I have to say that I am going to work as hard as a can to form a government, I am going to work as hard as I can. It is my duty as President of the People's Party (Partido Popular), which was voted for by a majority of the Spanish people on 26 June.

I would like the government to be formed quickly. In other words, I believe that it makes no sense and contradicts all logic that we should discuss everything under the sun all summer - July, and then August and September, and we don't know how much longer. I believe that things should be done quickly. There are many urgent decisions that we have to adopt: we have the debate on the expenditure ceiling, which will have to be in August, we have the debate on the new path in the European Commission; we have to approve the budgets, those of the government, but also the budgets of the autonomous regions, and if this is not done quickly we are going to have to delay approving the budget until the year after they must be approved, and all this has a very negative impact on our country's economy.

So I would like this government to be formed as quickly as possible. There is no reason for doing nothing for more months. I would also like this to be a stable government; in other words, one thing is the investiture and another is having a government that is in a position to govern; so I am going to work to ensure that there is a government that is as stable as possible, and of course I would like there to be goodwill on the part of all parties to reach agreements of State; in other words agreements on issues where understanding is key and where lack of this understanding, without any doubt, damages the general interests of the Spanish people. Of course, approval of a budget, which must be done now, the expenditure ceiling, the new deficit path, all the European issues we have pending and the issues of terrorism or foreign policy must, I believe, be the object of a majority understanding.

This is the position that I am going to defend. I believe that if we all think that repeating elections is bad, as I believe we do think this, we must all act with the greatest responsibility possible. I understand that I have the greatest responsibility as I head the list of the most voted party; but everyone has received their votes and their support, and they must be used in the best way for defending the general interests of Spain, although it is each of them that must interpret how they best defend the general interests of Spain.

But I insist, repeating the election would be crazy; Spain needs a government and it needs one urgently. This situation cannot be adjourned sine die. Given that, stability is very important for a government and it sends a good message if we are to be able to continue what should be the great national goal for the next four years, which is economic growth and job creation.

Q: Mr President of the Government, yesterday NATO approved the deployment of four battalions in the Baltic countries and Poland. In your speech you talked of Spain's commitments and I wanted to know what Spain's commitment would be, if there will be personnel, if there will be troops, and when we will find out about it.

And another question, if you will allow me. Although you said that Russia is our most important neighbour and yesterday's message from the Alliance was that Russia should remain as a partner and not an enemy, it should not be isolated. Is it to be expected that there may be some type of negative reaction on the part of Moscow to the deployment of these battalions? Have you talked about the scenario handled by NATO with respect to a reaction from Putin's government?

President of the Government: First of all, yes, now there will be a NATO deployment. There are four countries that will benefit from this deployment: there are three Baltic countries (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania) and then Poland. In each of these four countries the NATO deployment will be headed up by another four member states of NATO and others will collaborate.

And what I wanted to say yesterday, or what I said yesterday, is that we are going to continue to meet our commitments to these allies. At this point in time no decision has been taken on this issue, or on the countries that we are going to go to, and no decision has been taken on how and what type of collaboration there will be; but I insist, there is an absolute willingness on the part of the Government to meet our commitments to the allies, as in fact we are doing. I mentioned it before in my speech: not long ago I was in Adana, in Turkey, as some of you probably recall, for the G20 summit, and I took the opportunity to go there; that is where the Spanish anti-ballistic missiles are. I also referred to the Baltic air police with a four-month period in 2015 and in 2016; also in Poland we have just participated with 1,300 soldiers in an exercise to certify the high responsibility brigades; in Afghanistan, etc.

In other words, our commitments to NATO will continue to be met. The decision is still not taken, but there will be one when the time comes.

As to Russia, as you said rightly, it is true that there is dissuasion and defence. We believe that this is compatible with dialogue. On the decision we have taken with respect to the Baltic countries, which I have just referred to and about which you are interested, we believe that it forms part of the first part of this issue, dissuasion and defence. And at the meeting that will be held, I believe this Wednesday, I think, between NATO and Russia, one of the issues that we will deal with will be this one. We do not have any intention of generating problems or creating difficulties; but it is clear that our obligation is to support all our allies. What was agreed last night is that all the members of NATO will act with total and absolute unity on this matter, and that the policy will try to mix dissuasion and defence, and sanctions, which are maintained with dialogue.

Q: I would like to insist a little on the issue of the Federal Committee of the PSOE. Pedro Sánchez has said literally that you have not done anything, just as you did nothing in December, but that in addition you ask everyone to solve your problems. I would like to know what you think about that.

President of the Government: I have not told anyone to solve anything. What I am doing is meeting with all the political parties when I don't even have a mandate to form a government, because Parliament has not been constituted. I have talked with many political parties, and next week I will also talk with Ciudadanos and will also talk with Mr Iglesias. I hope to close more or less the first round next week, and this will continue once Parliament has been constituted.

So on that basis, I repeat, I will make the biggest effort, as is my obligation, my desire and that of the great majority of the Spanish people to form a stable government, or the most stable government possible, and of course as quickly as possible.

Q: To close this first round - we don't know about any interview that has not been made public - there still has to be an interview with Mr Sánchez, with the leader of the main opposition party. I don't know if you already have a planned date for when this interview will take place.

Then, when you say that you will make your greatest efforts, I don't know if you could specify a little what you are prepared to offer, if I may put it like that, to consolidate or to form this majority that can give stability to the government.

Finally, if you allow me, I would like to know whether you have already decided to accept the King's commission, in the probable case that it occurs, to subject yourself to an investiture.

President of the Government: About this issue, until the King takes a decision... I repeat, Parliament has still not been constituted; the speaker of the House has not yet been elected so they have not been able to talk with the King, and therefore we have to wait for that. Allow me to give my first answer to H.M. the King, if that event takes place.

Yes, I have already had conversations with practically all the parties, and when I have the conversation or have concluded it with Mr Sánchez, I will pass this on to all of you.

Greatest efforts? I am going to try to tell the political parties some things that I believe are mainly a matter of common sense. First of all, we have held elections on 20 December and the parties were not capable of reaching an understanding. I asked to be left to govern, as there was no agreement, given that I was the party most voted for. That was not possible, and there was no alternative and we had to repeat the elections. I believe that no one wants them, and it also flies in the face of reason and argument, and is radically opposed to common sense. There is no Spanish person, or there will be few, who want the elections to be repeated. So of course, we understand that we have majority support from the Spanish people, we have improved our position following the elections and it is our turn to form a government.

Having said that, there are two types of issues: there are issues that are urgent and necessary and without which it is not possible for things to function reasonably.

What are these issues? The first is very important: everything related to economic matters that include basically approval of the expenditure ceiling, the assumption of the European Commission's new deficit path, and the approval of a State budget. But we did not only talk of the general budget; without the expenditure ceiling it becomes more difficult, and to a certain extent the approval of the budgets of the different regional governments and even local councils become undesirably provisional in nature. So these are the issues in which I believe everyone must make an effort.

There is a second type of issue, those related to the European institutions. Here a number of very important debates have been raised. I would like European policy to be agreed. It does not appear very difficult to me, because I understand that a great majority of political parties have shared the major decisions adopted by the European Union; but I would at least like to be able to go to European Council meetings with a mandate that is not so rigid that it practically stops me from negotiating.

But the fact is that we have many issues ahead of us: we have the consequences of Brexit, where as you know we need the unanimous agreement of all the countries making up the European Union to reach an understanding on what relations between the European Union and United Kingdom will be in the future; we still have issues pending on the matter of Banking Union; at any time all the issues related to Fiscal Union could be opened up; there is progress in Monetary Union; and we still have much progress pending in the single market in the matter of the digital agenda and the electricity sector.

So to me it appears key that an agreement should be reached on this issue as well. Then I believe that it will not be too difficult for us to reach an understanding on defence issues, foreign policy and the fight against terrorism. Well, these are, let's say, the urgent issues on which I believe that it is good for even those who do not support the government to reach some sort of understanding, because they are issues that affect the basic pillars of the Spanish nation.

Then there is a second part that relates to the government's programme. We have obviously prepared a programme for government that over the coming week - we still have to see what the procedure is - I will try to pass on to all the political parties after the first meeting I have or will have with them, which was a meeting prior to all this. There, of course, we have to see what everyone's position is. The objectives are very clear: the first for the next four years is obviously growth and employment; maintaining the basic pillars of the Welfare State has to be the second; the third, which is the subject we have talked about today a great deal, is to defend life, the rights and freedoms of the Spanish people and of our allies everywhere - it has been the core element of today's NATO meeting, which has still not ended - and of course, without any doubt, there is a fourth very important issue, which is the defence of national unity and sovereignty.

These are the four issues, and based on that, I would like to share not only these objectives, which I believe are easy to share, but above all what measures have to be adopted to bring them to an appropriate conclusion.

I believe that these are more or less the three issues.

Q: Mr President of the Government, with respect to the new fiscal path, given that the budgetary year is far advanced already, I would like to know whether the Government plans to ask for two years of extension from the European Commission, as you were offered before, instead of one, given also the uncertainty about when a Government could be formed and the doubts that the European Commission also has about whether or not the fiscal targets will be met this year.

President of the Government: Initially, the Commission's thesis is that it should be a year, which is what we requested at the time. It will mean that next year, 2017, we would have to have a deficit of under 3%, as you well know. Only recently the Commission adopted a decision of that there was lack of effective action, in other words, it has noted that Spain has not complied with the deficit, and everything that comes next is uncertain, but the most likely outcome is that on the 12th this subject will be dealt with by the Eurogroup. It is then that procedures will be begun that you know very well, and thus one of the important issues is that Spain should be granted a new path, on which the Commission already pronounced itself at the time. The point is that it is a procedure that has to be modified now, as you well know.

What interests me - well, not just me, I think it interests all of us - is to have this path in place soon, because it is important to have clear rules of the game, above all when it comes to constructing the expenditure ceiling for us, central government, for the regional governments and for the local councils, and then to approve the budget.

So in principle, the idea would be: an extension of one year to 2017, when we would have to be under 3%, and of course, we are going to try to comply with it. Let's see if the Commission can approve that. A meeting still has to be held before the end of July; but I am not in a condition to assure you that the path will be approved at this meeting. Now, what I am in a condition to tell you is that I would like it to be so, because it would allow us to prepare the budget correctly and on time, something on which I place a great deal of importance from the economic point of view.

Q: Mr President of the Government, if you would allow me to go into more detail on this matter... even if the horizon of 2017 is not changed, given how far we are into the year and the budgetary year, as my colleague mentioned, I would like to ask whether Spain aims at least to redistribute the effort, so that this year Brussels doesn't ask us for so much, and in exchange, the greater effort will be made next year.

President of the Government: Yes, of course. I believe, you know it, but perhaps I am making a mistake, that this year the target was 2.8%, I think. That's right, isn't it, for 2016? I believe that is the case. Obviously, we would like this to be for 2017 and so this year for the target to be higher than the 2.8% that was included in the budget.

Q: I meant with respect to the original path you proposed in the Stability Programme.

President of the Government: But that is still not approved. Yes, I think it was 3.6% and 2.5%. That's what it was, wasn't it? Is that what you were referring to? It was already over the 2.8%, but of course it has not been formally approved for the procedural reasons that I referred to earlier.

What seems more substantial to me and what is more important is that next year we should be under 3%. This year will have to be decided on by the Commission when the time comes.

In any event, there is something important: first, that Spain has the will to reduce its public deficit. We have made a great effort, as you know, in these four years: we have gone from 9.3% to 5%. We have gone down over one point a year, with a recession in the first two years 2012 and 2013, and thus when revenues were falling. In other words, the Spanish people have made a significant effort that I believe everyone values.

But we have also achieved a surplus in our foreign sector, and that is also very important; we are financing ourselves, and so that is good. And then we have gained competitiveness, we have a good level of growth: last year was 3.2% and in the last quarter was 3.5%. In the first quarter of this year there was quarterly growth of 0.8% and I believe that this second quarter will go well. And jobs are being created: in the first six months the number of people in the Social Security system increased by 450,000.

In other words, the Government of Spain and the people, the Spanish people, are taking the economic situation seriously; they are taking it very seriously. We have experienced an extraordinary crisis, we are doing much better, but we have to continue to take this very seriously and I hope that these things that the Government, Parliament and the people have approved are also taken into account.

Ladies and Gentlemen, with your permission, let's put an end to the meeting.

Thank you very much.