​Mariano Rajoy stresses that government decisions have allowed electricity prices to be similar to those in 2015

Lower House of Parliament, Madrid

In response to a question from the Podemos MP, Pablo Iglesias, President of the Government Rajoy explained in detail how the price of the electricity bill is set in Spain. He explained that it is divided into two parts, one regulated - which is set by the government and which represents 42% of the total - and the other is unregulated - which is set by the market. Mariano Rajoy underlined that the part that depends on the government has not gone up in the last three years - in 2016 it actually fell by 2.8%.

The President of the Government clarified that the electricity bill has risen in recent months due to the part that depends on the market, which is mainly due to the rise in oil prices (up 112%), natural gas (up 130%) and coal (up 113%). He also added that the adverse meteorological conditions have not helped this situation, since the lack of rainfall and wind has meant that hydro-electric power stations and wind farms have not been able to produce more energy. Mariano Rajoy also pointed to another factor that has negatively affected this situation, namely the nuclear energy situation in France.

Electricity prices are also rising in other European countries

The President of the Government also pointed out that other European countries are experiencing a similar situation to Spain. "The electricity bills in France, Switzerland, Italy, Belgium and other countries have risen more than ours".

Mariano Rajoy stressed that the decisions taken by the government have allowed the fixed part to be frozen, and hence current electricity prices are similar to those in 2015.

Banking system

Pool Moncloa / J.M.CuadradoThe leader of Ciudadanos, Albert Rivera, asked the President of the Government about the situation of the savings banks. Mariano Rajoy defended the decisions the government took in this regard, the same actions as taken by "the vast majority of countries in the European Union".

The President of the Government remarked that if nothing had been done, "these institutions would have suffered a chaotic bankruptcy", which would have destroyed "any confidence in the Spanish economy" and generated "very serious economic problems that would have affected all of us". He also added that the government opted to "re-capitalise the system, re-structure the sector, dismiss senior executives, limit salaries and bring cases before the public prosecutor". He stated that this was "what needed to be done, in the same way as in other European countries, most recently in Italy".

Mariano Rajoy stated that Spanish banks have now passed the tests imposed by the European Central Bank on 130 European financial institutions. "The Spanish banks came out of this with the best results and in second place in those situations in which a stress test was applied".

Mariano Rajoy also underlined that, thanks to these decisions, there is now "credit available in our country" for families and for businesses and, moreover, the risk premium, which reached 700 basis points, now stands at around 100 points. "This comes as a result of re-structuring our financial system".

Yakolev 42

On behalf of the Socialist parliamentary group, MP Antonio Hernando asked about the Yak-42 aircraft accident. After admitting that this tragedy was "one of the worst events in our recent history" because of the pain it caused the families of the victims and the armed forces, the President of the Government paid tribute to the victims and passed this on to those who "work for our defence, for our security and for maintaining peace in locations beyond our borders".

Pool Moncloa / J.M.CuadradoMariano Rajoy also explained that he fully agrees with the words "spoken just a short time ago by the Minister for Defence" on this issue because "I believe that this is only fair".

The President of the Government recalled that he met with the families of the victims on Tuesday, 31 January at Moncloa Palace. He stated that this was "a frank, cordial meeting, I listened to them, and I shared their feelings". At this meeting, I also explained to them that we will try to "mitigate part of this pain" and, above all, that work will be done to "avoid this type of incident ever happening again".

Catalonia

At the end of the government control session, in the corridors of the Lower House, the President of the Government explained to the media that relations with Catalonia are not bad. He added that relations are bad "with some people from some political parties who quite simply want to flout the law, and they openly admit this".

The President of the Government also stressed that "an illegal referendum cannot be held".