Interview with President of the Government on programme "Herrera en COPE", on Cadena COPE

Madrid

Carlos Herrera.- Mr Rajoy, how are you? Good morning.

President of the Government.- Good morning, Carlos. Delighted to speak with you.

C. Herrera.- You are someone who is normally calm in the face of good news, but I imagine that yesterday, after the heat of the campaign and after the last few months of an acting government, you must have gone crazy, isn't that right?

President of the Government.- The truth is that we are very pleased, because this has been a tough battle. It's not just a question of the elections, we already held others six months ago, in-between there was a very complicated period and the years since 2011, when we came to power, were complicated as well. Spain went through the worst economic crisis in decades, nothing was easy for us and just look, there are still a lot of things to do, which will not be easy either.

But, in short, following all this, we are truly pleased. My party is pleased. We have worked hard, we have travelled throughout Spain, everyone has given the best of themselves and, I would like to say that sometimes you are entitled to feel satisfied. We are very pleased and very encouraged to see whether we will be able to form a government soon and set to work.

C. Herrera.- Have you concluded that the two-party system is not dead and buried, but rather that it has risen up again strongly?

President of the Government.- The People's Party has won and the Socialist Party has won. Just look, Carlos, the first democratic elections in Spain in modern times were held back in 1977; almost 40 years have gone by since then and the change that has taken place in Spain over these almost 40 years has been truly spectacular: we drafted a Constitution; we brought in a regime of liberty, democracy and human rights; Spain grew tremendously at an economic level; we have a welfare model like few other countries and we have good infrastructures. We are a country that has its own problems, its defects, its peculiarities, with some people who don't live well, but the change that has taken place is truly incredible. And this idea of writing off the two parties who have played a leading role in this change does not seem reasonable to me; the Spanish people have not written them off and, in all honesty, I believe that they are right not to have done so, although I am obviously biased in the matter.

C. Herrera.- A government now needs to be formed. Will the first offer you make be the same as you made in the previous elections, in other words, a great coalition with the PSOE, and, if they are interested, with Ciudadanos?

President of the Government.- Yes, I am going to speak… I will call the leaders of the other parties but, with the MPs we have, even with a margin of more than 50 over the second largest party, it will be very difficult to govern. I will try not only to win a vote of confidence, but also try to find a formula to govern with a majority in order to approve the Budget for the year 2017 and approve the laws we have ahead of us, as well as meet our European obligations. To do this I suppose we need a minimum level of understanding, at least on four or five issues and I will do everything in my power to achieve this. I will speak with all the political forces, in the first place with the PSOE, which remains the second leading political force in our country.

C. Herrera.- Yesterday, when Mr Sánchez called you to congratulate you, did you allude to the great coalition?

President of the Government.- No, no. He simply called me to congratulate me on the election results. I thanked him for the call and I told him that I would like to see him soon, and he said that he agreed we should hold talks. But, in all truth, we did not go into detail on anything, because it wasn't the right moment, but there is a willingness to talk.

C. Herrera.- The second possibility is to offer a pact to Ciudadanos, either on the legislature or regarding the vote of confidence, and also gather more support from other groupings in the Lower House, perhaps with the Basque Nationalist Party (Spanish acronym: PNV) or with the Canary Island coalition. Do you think that this is a viable option?

President of the Government.- We would need an agreement with not just Ciudadanos but also with the PNV and with the Canary Island coalition. That, I seem to remember, would give us 175 seats, exactly half. Whilst not discarding any option, I believe that, at any event, on the fundamental issues we need the PSOE and there are also important European issues to be taken into account. Managing the whole issue of the United Kingdom exiting the European Union is not something that can be done at the drop of a hat; this requires a great deal of discussion and it requires reaching a national agreement.

Hence, while we are not closing any doors, I must try to have a majority that allows us to govern because, if not, this would be very complex and very difficult, as you are aware.

C. Herrera.- In other words, you are not going to turn down the chance of standing for a vote of confidence on this occasion.

President of the Government.- No. Until 19 July, Parliament will not be constituted, and hence, the round of consultations with the King will begin after that. We are talking about something that will take place within a month. I believe that within a month we will have to have a fledgling agreement in place, because what does not make any sense is to waste several months once again, as happened after the elections on 20 December, which is now over six months ago. I would like to see us being able, within a month, to do something sensible and reasonable, and also being able to facilitate things for H.M. the King.

C. Herrera.- How do you analyse the fact, the defeat - well, not a defeat as such, because in short it has great merit for a party to have 71 seats - of Unidos Podemos not having lived up to its expectations?

President of the Government.- In reality, there was a certain displeasure displayed by many people which was manifested in the elections, both in relation to the People's Party and in relation to the Socialist Party, because it fell to us to handle a monumental crisis. People were able to understand that the decisions taken by the Government of Spain, in this case with the support of the People's Party, and what the Socialist Party had done previously, were very harmful for the interests of the Spanish people, and they felt that a change was necessary in the form of the arrival fresh faces on the scene. But anyway, what happens in politics, and in life in general, is that talk is cheap

People this time round had more actions to base their opinion on regarding one party and another. It is clear that this political force has not governed in Spain at a national level, but it has done certain things on local and city councils, we have heard certain speeches made and they are now somewhat better known. As regards the rest of us, it is 100% known what we stand for, what are our defects and what are our virtues, but we are only just starting to see this in relation to these new parties and, in all honesty, I believe that the electorate has been right in not giving them the overwhelming support that it was thought they might receive because, in all truth, their formulas will serve no end in the Europe in which we live.

C. Herrera.- Three very quick questions, and then I will let you get to work on other things. Firstly, would you accept negotiating a constitutional reform as a pre-requisite for the party pacts to be pushed through and hence form a government?

President of the Government.- In truth, what I would accept is talking about specific reforms because the key to a constitutional reform is what the goal of this reform is. I am clearly not opposed to a constitutional reform, among other things, because we have already made two reforms of this nature here and I voted in favour of both of them, one on the vote for foreigners and the other on the Fiscal Treaty of the European Union. Hence, I am prepared to do this but we must know exactly what the goal of the reform is.

C. Herrera.- Did Mr Iglesias congratulate you?

President of the Government.- Yes, yes he did. I spoke with Mr Sánchez by phone and Mr Rivera and Mr Iglesias both congratulated me…, they sent me a message. We have also spoken with the PNV, but that was through the General Secretary of my party as I didn't have time to do that yesterday. I will try to speak with more people today.

C. Herrera.- One final question: what result caught your attention the most or gave you the greatest satisfaction in terms of what your party has achieved: the one in Andalusia, in Valencia or in Galicia?

President of the Government.- Just look, if I had been asked that, I would have said that all three, the result in Andalusia, in Valencia and in Galicia. This has been a wonderful result in Andalusia, our people have fought hard, we have beaten the Socialist Party and in Valencia the party is starting to get the measure of things: And, in truth I am very pleased with the result in Galicia, my native land where, with two more seats than we had before, this shows that people have made an effort, they have worked hard and taken the matter seriously.

All three. I would be unable to choose. If you hadn't said anything I can tell you that I would have said all three.

C. Herrera.- Mr Rajoy, thank you for coming here. Good luck in the negotiations henceforth.

President of the Government.- Thank you very much, Carlos.

C. Herrera.- See you soon.

President of the Government.- Thank you.