Appearance by President of the Government after accepting commission from King to form government

Moncloa Palace, Madrid

PEDRO SÁNCHEZ, Acting President of the Government.

Acting President of the Government: Good evening, first of all. My thanks to the media for accompanying us at this press briefing. And if you agree I will read a short statement and then answer any questions you may have.

I appear here before you after the open consultation process by His Majesty the King has concluded today. As you know, the aim of this round of consultations is contained in Article 99 of the Spanish Constitution, which consists of the Head of State proposing a candidate for the Presidency of the Government of Spain. I have conveyed to His Majesty the King my acceptance of this commission he has made, which is the direct consequence of the majority mandate expressed, once again, through the ballot box by the Spanish people in the general elections held on 10 November, as also happened on 28 April.

I take on this commission with honour, with responsibility and with tremendous gratitude to the people of Spain.

Our citizens were once again clear when they voted on 10 November: they want the Socialist Party to govern; no other parliamentary alternative is possible. They declared this in the recent general elections on 10 November, and also on 28 April, backed by the municipal elections, the regional elections and the European elections on 26 May. That is five election processes in total in this year to date. And the Socialist Party has won in each of them, in a clear and outright fashion.

Hence, a conclusion can be reached, which should inspire all political parties to act responsibly with a view to the big picture.

Our citizens expect a lot from us and we must rise to their wishes. It is our will to govern with the progressive values that characterise the political project of the Socialist Party and with a desire to forge broad consensuses, which is what the citizens of our country need - broad consensuses, dialogue with all the political forces within a broad framework, which is the constitutional framework. That is what I humbly intend to do over the next four years if the Lower House places its confidence in me.

Tomorrow and Friday, you are aware of this, although public opinion not so much, because you watch political affairs more closely, there is a very important European Council in Brussels. On Thursday and Friday we are going to address such issues as the multiannual financial framework, which is the EU Budget, Brexit, and also the Euro, and consequently I will be defending the interests of the Government of Spain at this European Council.

And I would like to make four announcements to you. The first of these is that I will call Mr Casado, the President of the People's Party in the Lower House of Parliament, to hold a meeting. Second, on the same day, I will call the new Spokesperson of the Parliamentary Group Ciudadanos, Ms Arrimadas, in response to her request a few days ago to hold a meeting. Third, I can also tell you that the Spokesperson for the Socialist Parliamentary Group, Ms Adriana Lastra, will meet with all the political parties in the Lower House of Parliament to see if we can find a broader parliamentary majority that allows us to bypass certain criteria in order to ensure a government is formed as soon as possible in our country through the investiture procedure.

Hence, the Spokesperson for the Socialist Parliamentary Group will call all the parliamentary groups present in the Lower House.

And lastly, as from next week, I will call all the regional presidents, and also the President of the Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces, to share my wish with all of them, which I believe is the wish of the majority of citizens in our country, to have a government in place as soon as possible that makes proposals and offers solutions to many of the problems also being suffered by the regional governments, by local authorities, by provincial councils, by island councils, and which require cooperation between the Government of the Nation, regional governments, provincial governments and local authorities.

So, I will speak as of next week with all the regional presidents in our country.

Spain must push on and the Spanish people want this progress to move in the direction set by the progressive values that the Socialist Party represents.

We must all do our part to ensure that a government is formed in Spain as soon as possible. And ensure that the legislature, consequently, starts to run so that the challenges our country is facing can be tackled.

Spain is an extraordinary country. Just today, the Secretary-General of the United Nations has recognised the extraordinary generosity and capacity for organisation of a Climate Conference in record time, like nobody else has. Our country is extraordinary and there is no time to waste.

Quality jobs, decent jobs and decent wages, education, science, culture, sustaining our pensions, competitiveness and the internationalisation of our companies, the fight against social exclusion, combatting gender-based violence, the ecological transition and climate change and its impact on our economy, gender inequality, the territorial crisis in Catalonia, the demographic challenge, regional financing and the construction of a much stronger political drive in Europe than we have at this time. These are all tasks we face as a society and that cannot be put off.

We need to make progress through transformations that involve, as I said at the start of my speech, broad nationwide agreements in socio-labour, economic, educational and institutional fields and which require broad consensuses. And I should point out that this is a complex, yet passionate and exciting task. And this is the attitude with which the Socialist Party and I myself will approach this task.

My aim is for this government to have a clearly progressive outlook, which is precisely backed and strengthened by this coalition agreement that we have reached with Unidas Podemos, and this clear spirit of dialogue with all the parliamentary forces that want to be and feel called to back the proposal and the political project that this coalition government represents.

The Spanish people are fed up with confrontation and useless quarrels. They want to believe in politics once again. I am convinced that they want to believe in politics again. And that is why they are calling for stability, certainty and policies which, through consensus, achieve progress, solutions and agreements to resolve many of the challenges that the Spanish people face in their daily lives.

This same spirit that led to the agreement to enact the Constitution more than four decades ago is what calls us, the politicians, and with this spirit I will try to humbly shape stable support for a progressive coalition government and a legislature that, arose, unfortunately, out of repeat elections on 10 November, but which must be a legislature of progress, of great transformations in our country which necessarily require dialogue and agreement, and consequently, consensus.

With this spirit and this goal we will attend to this round of consultations with the different parliamentary forces. And without further ado, I will answer any questions you may have.

Q: Daniel Basteiro, from 'El Español'. Thank you. If there are only going to be two sets of questions at this press briefing, it is not because we, the journalists, don't want to ask questions, but rather, unlike other political leaders that have appeared in the Lower House, this limit has been imposed, something that my colleagues and I profoundly disagree with.

Acting President of the Government, you propose to stand for the investiture this month. Now that the King has proposed your nomination, are you in a position to guarantee that you will stand for the investiture debate before the end of the year? And if not, what time limit do you set? Can Spain wait for later than January for this investiture debate?

And secondly, you said on Friday that the Constitution contains the tools to resolve the crisis in Catalonia. I wanted to know what these tools are. Could you say what they are and does Esquerra Republicana accept addressing the crisis in Catalonia within the framework of the Constitution? Thank you.

Acting President of the Government: Well, as regards your first question about yesterday, the first question is the what and the second is the when. The what is the government. Spain needs a government, and consequently, all the political parties and clearly the leading political party, which is the Socialist Party, which won the elections, must take responsibility and it is incumbent on us to form a government in our country.

Just look, there are different options. We can form a government, which is what the Socialist Party and Unidas Podemos are proposing through a coalition government, which is unprecedented, by the way, in the democratic history of our country.

The formation of this government can be facilitated. There are many political forces, including, for example, Esquerra Republicana, which has said that they are prepared, through negotiations, to facilitate the formation of a government if an agreement is reached. I also want to say this conditionally.

And there are two political forces in this country, the far right and the People's Party, that have said they won't; they are resigned to imposing a stalemate. They don't want to facilitate the formation of this government. So, they will have to explain whether they want a third round of elections in this country or not.

Of course the Socialist Party - and I want to be abundantly clear to the public about this - hopes there won't be a third round of elections; there shouldn't be and there mustn't be elections again next year in our country, because what Spain needs is a period of stability, of certainty to address, through the necessary consensus, the major transformations required in our country. And hence, the dilemma is whether to have a government or not.

I find this stalemate very striking, not by the far right, this refusal to allow the formation of a progressive government in our country, but in this case by the People's Party, this refusal to allow the formation of a government in our country by a party that, by the way, gives many lessons on constitutionalism and a sense of State but which, in the end, only serves to block the formation of the only government possible all the time there is no parliamentary majority, as I said before in my speech.

Hence, what is important is the what, and then you have the when. As regards the when, for us, as soon as possible. But clearly it does not only depend on us, because of the 350 MPs in the House, as you know, we only have the vote of 120. That is a lot, but not a sufficient majority to only be able to depend on our parliamentary forces.

And as regards your second question, I would say to you that I will not apply adjectives to how these negotiations are going with Esquerra Republicana. I thank Esquerra Republicana for the attitude it is showing. We are making progress, but these negotiations must be discreet. Agreement must be public, but if we want these negotiations to culminate successfully, they must be sufficiently discreet so as to allow an agreement to be reached, which can then be made public. I said this in the press briefing I gave at the NATO Summit the other day in London; of course this agreement will logically fall within the constitutional framework, as I said in my speech, and it will be made public.

Q: Beatriz Fernández, from 'Europa Press'. Good evening. Let's see if we can find a balance between the discretion that all negotiations require and the minimum information that citizens want to receive.

You have just announced certain things to us that you will do as of next week, but what is going on now is a negotiation with Esquerra and so I will ask you about that. Are you willing, or do you see a possibility, of a new forum for bilateral dialogue being set up? A forum between the Government of Spain and the Regional Government of Catalonia that is new and different from the bilateral commission to talk about the political conflict on the future of Catalonia?

And secondly, Acting Minister Ábalos, one of the people who, on behalf of the PSOE, are negotiating with Esquerra, recently argued that channels for expression could be found so that the pro-independence movement would not be forced to act outside of the law. What do you have in mind when you speak about these channels for expression? What are you referring to? Thank you.

Acting President of the Government: I feel I have been quite clear in answering Daniel's first question, and I would reaffirm my answers. These negotiations must be sufficiently discreet so as to allow them to be successfully concluded, and logically this agreement will be made public. Consequently, I can guarantee this because, in short, this is the Socialist Party, and people have known who we are for the last 40 years. We helped draft the Spanish Constitution and all agreements will be made public and will fall within the constitutional framework.

Thank you very much.

(Transcript edited by the State Secretariat for Communication)

Non official translation