Interview with President of the Government of Spain on Cadena Ser

2020.9.1

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Àngels Barceló: President of the Government, good day. We had another shock yesterday with the figures on the spread of the coronavirus. Why are our figures worse than our peer countries?

President of the Government: Yesterday, one of the main advisers on the scientific committee and the de-escalation committee - Miguel Hernán - one of the leading Spanish authorities on epidemics, highlighted the reasons a little- more than one reason. I think the most important aspect is to always remember the obvious, the essential, which is that it is us, humans, people, who can act as a wall against or as a vector for the spread of the virus. Clearly mobility is a factor. This is obvious if we remember the first few weeks after the state of emergency, with, for example, the spread among agricultural workers, the seasonal workers, and then the spread through nightlife activities. In short, our people have gradually relaxed in terms of the level of protection and of the health emergency, which has led to a greater spread. And from an institutional point of view, it is clear that, whilst it is true that we have greatly stepped up cooperation, coordination and co-governance among the different public authorities, it is also true that the levels of tracing in some autonomous regions - and I want to underline this, because it is true that the spread of the epidemic has been different among the regions, and it is not my place to judge this, but it is true that the strategic capacities of the regions, of some regions, must improve.

Question: Does that mean some regional governments have not done what they should have? Has Madrid, for example, not complied with its duties?

President of the Government: I don't want to get into dialectic to see who is responsible.

Question: Yes, but with the figures being what they are, Madrid is the worst region right now.

President of the Government: In the end, what we have done has been to make available material resources, you have the armed forces contact tracers - 2,000 servicemen and women, who are available to the regional governments, of which 11 have requested their support. Two, digital means, you have the Radar COVID app, and I have been urging each and every regional government to please sign up to these agreements as soon as possible so that in mid-September all our people, wherever they may live in our country, have this digital tool, which is also fundamental in avoiding the spread. Three, the legal means. I have heard in recent weeks, after the proposal I made of the possibility to request a regional state of emergency, which, by the way, is provided for in the 1981 Constitutional Law, that I was apparently abandoning my duties. That is not true, because this state of emergency must be approved by the Council of Ministers; it is not true because you must remember that the state of emergency is not a full lockdown - the state of emergency was the umbrella used by the regional governments in the final phases of the de-escalation; and thirdly, because what we are doing is simply reminding the regional presidents that they are the top State representatives in their respective regions. And hence, I am offering, just look, Ángels, what I was not offered when we requested the extension of the state of emergency, that is, the votes of that parliamentary majority that currently lends support to the Government of Spain in the Lower House of Parliament, so that any regional president that requests this can receive parliament backing in the Lower House.

Question: And if the situation worsens in some regions and this is not requested by the regional president, will the government act?

President of the Government: We are already acting. I think it is also important to remember that the State of the Autonomies, our State comprised of regions, demands leadership from Central Government, it demands coordination and co-governance by Central Government, and this is what we are doing on a weekly basis. Last week, for example, when this very important agreement was reached on the return to school in our country, one of the issues firmed up was that an Inter-territorial Health Council meeting would be held every week, every Thursday. In fact, just look, there have been meetings between the Ministry of Health and its regional counterparts every week since the end of the state of emergency. I feel we have reached some very important agreement - the Royal Decree-Law on the New Normal, where we established some legislative changes precisely to ensure social distancing, the use of face coverings and a long list of other measures. And also strategic capacities, not just regarding PPE, and not just regarding medication, but also on other issues, and lastly, everything related to the economic resources we have transferred to the regional governments.

I want to remind you that never, in this long democratic period of 40 years in our country, have so many economic resources been transferred by Central Government to the regional governments in any given year. It is true that we are going through an unprecedented situation in the last 100 years of the history of humanity, including in our country, and hence this requires a special effort at solidarity with the regional governments, but just let me remind you of this: 16 billion euros for the regional governments which are non-repayable, 9 billion euros for health spending, 2 billion euros for education spending which has meant, among other questions, that we now have more than 30,000 new teachers at more than 27,000 education centres precisely to tackle this health emergency.

Question: Let me now ask you about the start of this new school year, and return to Madrid, because yesterday, Fernando Simón, in his press briefing, declared his concern over the figures in Madrid, which the President of the Regional Government of Madrid called ruthless. I don't know if you think that Central Government is being ruthless with this regional government.

President of the Government: Let's see, I feel that, and yesterday I said this at an event we called "Spain Can", with Spanish business owners and civil society, our people perceive that things won't be the same in the before and the after of the pandemic. We cannot adopt the same attitude in politics, by the political representatives. If our people have changed their social psyche, as this has changed and they demand unity, then our pubic representatives, the representatives of this society in the Lower House of Parliament and the different institutions, then what we must do is exercise this unity.

I feel that what we must do is banish party squabbling from the handling of the virus; I am not going to get into any question that is related to party squabbling against a common enemy, which is what we have. There is no left-wing or right-wing virus; there is a common enemy, which is the virus. Secondly, I believe that we must strengthen our public institutions, to which end I call for responsibility from everyone, particularly from the People's Party, above all in the renewal of institutions that are fundamental for the smooth progress of our democracy.

And thirdly, I believe that we must change the political climate, I believe our people are demanding this from their public representatives, whether from a regional president of a parliamentary group in the Lower House; they want us to place the common good over and above their party interests, which are legitimate, but in an unprecedented situation such as societies are going through around the world, and hence in Spain I feel that we must place the general interest above any other interest.

Question: Let's move on to politics now, but returning to the pandemic; if Madrid does not control the number of transmissions, what will the government do?

President of the Government: We are doing what we must do with the Regional Government of Madrid, we are placing at its disposal contact tracers from the armed forces, we are making economic resources available, as we have done over these long months of 2020, and of course, all of this effort at generosity is being done through co-governance, not just with the Region of Madrid but with all the autonomous regions.

Just one clarification; if Doctor Simón passed on this message yesterday from the Ministry of Health in his daily press briefing, I believe that what we are passing on is our concern over the state of public health and the spread of the epidemic in Madrid. And this also brings me back to a previous question that I mentioned to you, doesn't it?

When I hear the PP say that they don't support, for example, a Draft Budget proposed by the coalition government, because they are the alternative, then precisely because they are the other alternative, at an unprecedented time like the present in our country, then we must put the party struggle to one side in the fight against this virus and we must put the common good ahead of party interests. This is what I would like to ask from all the representatives of the People's Party, whether they have a seat in the Lower House or in an office in Puerta del Sol, where the headquarters of the Regional Government of Madrid are located.

Question: Has the President of the Government thought about a national state of emergency at any time? What conditions would have to prevail to return to this? Because the figures now are similar to those in March.

President of the Government: They are similar but there are differences, important differences. We mentioned this before; we must remember that after the state of emergency we found ourselves in an exceptional situation with some workers who suffer from alarming levels of job insecurity, which are our agricultural workers, the seasonal workers. We halted, precisely through extraordinary coordination between the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Agriculture and their regional counterparts, this epidemic which moves around Spain depending on the different harvests.

Secondly, we have begun, in coordination with all the regional governments, to halt the spread of the virus in nightlife activities, and also in care homes for the elderly, and also clearly in family meetings, by recommending meetings of not more than 10 people, in short, by doing many things with the regional governments which are, in short, powers in the field of public health.

Aside from that, we must all be aware that the spread of the epidemic is not homogenous around the whole country and hence there is no justification for us proposing a state of emergency with measures that are equally as tough for all regions, and accordingly the proposal we have made for regional states of emergency, which is something we had in the final phases of the de-escalation.

And on top of that, I feel that we must also value the efforts being made by the regional governments because last week, for example, we performed almost half a million PCR tests in our country. We even saw days when as many as 80,000 PCR tests were performed. What does this mean? That we have a much greater capacity for early detection than we had in the month of March. This is also translating to the mortality rate, the number of people being taken to hospital and to intensive care units, and hence, taking into account the approach being made by the Government of Spain is the same as that of Doctor Simón, which is one of an alarming spread of the epidemic. I feel that the figures, which have been corroborated, show that the situation at this time bears no relation at all to the one we unfortunately had back in March this year.

Question: And with this level of contagion, is the return to school of children safe?

President of the Government: Yes, it is.

Question: Are you sure?

President of the Government: Just look, we talk a lot about the risk. The risk in an epidemic is not zero, that is clear. No zero risk exists, but there are risks that families, the education community, the regional governments and Central Government must avoid, which is the risk of social exclusion as a result of not returning to school. I feel we need to reconcile the two aspects. I believe that the joint exercise undertaken by the regional governments, the education communities and Central Government has been very positive. We started to work on 10 June on a recommendation guide for universities, which was reinforced this last week. One day after the state of emergency was lifted on 22 June, we approved a recommendation guide between the Ministry of Education and its regional counterparts, a new agreement that has been reinforced this week, and hence, I believe that parents, pupils and the education community can all feel safe that their sons and daughters and workers who perform their activities in education centres will be much safer at these centres than elsewhere. But zero risk does not exist.

Question: President of the Government, what does the government think about those parents that have to stay at home because their children have been infected and have to self-isolate? Because this is one of the main concerns of parents. What will happen with the parents?

President of the Government: Well, firstly, a form of temporary incapacity already exists, in fact this has already been in place in recent months, regulated by the social security system, and hence those parents that end up in this situation will be entitled to sign up to it. And secondly, there is a Royal Decree that was passed. This is Decree 8/20, which was approved this year and will remain in force until 22 September, and is now subject to social dialogue, which recognises the capacity - the programme is called "Me Cuida" to make this flexible up to even 100% of the working day when a worker, a mother or father, is in this situation because of one of their children

Question: In other words, they can take sick leave…

President of the Government: Yes, in fact…

Question: Are business owners in agreement with this?

President of the Government: We are currently negotiating this through social dialogue, but we must remember that the social security system already recognises this form of labour incapacity in the event of this unforeseen eventuality.

Question: Let's move on to the Budget, which is another of the major concerns. Has Podemos lifted its veto on Ciudadanos?

President of the Government: Well, there was no veto.

Question: Well…

President of the Government: No, there really wasn't.

Question: Define veto, we could start with defining, so…

President of the Government: Let's see, I believe that… Firstly, let's settle the debate, because I feel this is very important for our listeners. Firstly, the Budget is the main Act of Parliament, the main instrument for any government to tackle socio-economic emergencies such as the ones we have right now in our country. Secondly, it transpires that we are still using the 2018 Budget, which had no bearing on this health, economic and social emergency we are presently suffering from, approved by a conservative party - the People's Party - which does not contain those instruments to tackle social emergencies, or to channel all those economic resources that will filter through from Europe as from next year. These 140 billion euros, 72 billion of which are direct transfers to undertake this digital transition, the ecological transition, to enhance the territorial cohesion needed in our country and to boost and re-launch economic growth and job creation. Hence, we must urgently approve the new Budget.

This old Budget will not be capable of absorbing these economic resources, nor will it be able to tackle these social emergencies. Aside from that, what Budget will we propose?

Well, this new Budget, and I have said this over the course of the pandemic, will reaffirm a great deal the commitments included in the government agreement between the Socialist Party and Unidas Podemos. We had already said that it was necessary to speed up the whole ecological transformation, the whole digital transition and all the disruptive elements needed, for example, in education and in relation to the job market. We said we needed to strengthen social and territorial cohesion and make progress on the feminist agenda because it is women who are suffering, above all, from the impact of this crisis. That is what we want to do and this will be the basis for the Draft Budget that we will speak about with the other political groups. But the Budget must serve the whole country. This must logically be a Budget that looks beyond the mere parliamentary majority that props up this government, with 155 seats, when we need to reach 176.

Question: Let me ask you so that we are all clear, so that our listeners are clear. Has you government partner never said no to you regarding Ciudadanos?

President of the Government: Let's see, the government partner - Unidas Podemos - and the Socialist Party, are aware that we must approve the Budget. We are aware that this must be a progressive Budget and that we must also be aware that this must not be an exclusionary Budget. And when I say that this must not be an exclusionary Budget, it means we cannot exclude any political group from this dialogue to approve a Budget which is, I wouldn't just say necessary, but rather urgent, essential; this is the sine qua non condition, in my opinion, to be able to address the social emergency with all due guarantees, together with the economic recovery of our country.

Question: So, what comes out of the negotiations between the two government partners, which, by the way, we found this out today, we broadcast this at 8 in the morning, you today start… you have met with Pablo Iglesias, but today the teams start to meet… will what comes out of these negotiations be non-negotiable, is this fixed or may it alter according to the negotiations with the rest of the parties?

President of the Government: Well, I repeat, the proposal that leads to this Draft Budget will be the government agreement, but of course we will clearly have to speak with strategic partners in the Lower House to give the government stability. I am referring to the Basque Nationalist Party and to many other parties in the parliamentary spectrum. I repeat, we will not veto any political party, but I believe that it is very important to convey to politicians what we are saying in our speeches: now is not the time for vetoes; it is the time for utmost unity. We, as the government, choose unity and unity alone. What I said yesterday within the framework of the Conference "Spain Can", in opposition to the division, the confrontation and the opposition that other political forces are proposing. Unity does not mean unanimity. We already know that there will be political groups that exclude themselves from any type of agreement. We can already see that. There are even political groups that are proposing votes of no-confidence in September, precisely when what our people are demanding from their political parties is quite the opposite - they want unity. But, I repeat, there may be reasons, strands, justifications that explain why in a situation such as the one we are going through the need to have a new Budget to address the social emergency is more important than mere classical parliamentary arithmetic and, I repeat, the recovery effort we face is huge.

Question: You have not mentioned the ERC [Republic Left of Catalonia] among your strategic partners. Do you no longer trust the ERC?

President of the Government: No, I do.

Question: Really? You still trust the ERC?

President of the Government: Of course, I don't… quite the opposite. On many occasions, I hear that if we don't want dialogue… and there you have the Dialogue Board between the Government of Spain and the Regional Government of Catalonia. We are prepared to meet in the month of September, whenever the Regional Government of Catalonia wants, and there is clearly dialogue with all the parliamentary groups. I repeat, we are not going to veto anyone. Clearly, the proposal will be a progressive, country proposal. And hence, this will be the nature of the proposal we make to the different parliamentary groups, but, I repeat, I believe that we need a new Budget if we want to tackle the social emergency and the economic recovery with all due guarantees.

Question: And in the negotiations with Cs, how will you organise this so that UP is also present, so that your government partner is present?

President of the Government: Well, we are a coalition government. We are not a single-colour government, and hence all those entering dialogue must acknowledge that this is a coalition government, which is an undisputed fact. It is undisputed from the point of view of the composition of the government, it is undisputed from the point of view of the drafting of a government agreement that is even more valid at this time because it indicated the transformations that are necessary to address and are much more pressing now than before the pandemic, and hence, all the parliamentary groups must be aware that there are key elements of this country proposal for the upcoming Budget which will clearly be important to preserve from the point of view of the social emergency, from the point of view of steering all the economic resources towards the digital transition, the ecological transition, towards territorial cohesion and a gender equality agenda, above all, very focused on the half of the population that is most suffering from the consequences of this pandemic; I am referring to the female half of the population because they are the ones that are most engaged in care work, and consequently, they need to be aware of this as well, and all of the parliamentary political forces must also be aware of this. We will make an effort to negotiate; we will make an effort to forge an agreement, but clearly without distorting the central elements of the proposal of the progressive coalition government.

Question: And what can people expect from tomorrow's meeting with Pablo Casado? I don't know if they understand that the fact that once again there is no agreement between the two main political forces at such a sensitive and delicate time for Spain can cause frustration.

President of the Government: You are right about that, which is why just yesterday I precisely proposed at the conference I attended that we change the political climate. If people are aware that things have changed from before the pandemic, then politicians should not act using the old clichés, the old divisions, the old narratives prior to the pandemic, and hence we must put general interests above party interests. Yesterday I said that I am not asking for people to renounce their convictions or their political project, I am simply asking that we adapt these convictions and ideologies to the extraordinary times our society, our economy, and politics around the world and in Spain are going through, which is what I am doing.

Look, in the month of July, we reached an agreement in Europe between governments that represent or have a vision of Europe in the Antipodes. The vision that I have of Europe, compared with the Hungarian President, with President Orban, are utterly opposed, but we reached an agreement because we put the common good ahead of the individual interests of one government or another, which is what we must also do in Spain. If we are in the midst of a social, economic and health emergency, it is clear that we need robust institutions; for example, the constitutional mandate regarding the governing body of the General Council of the Judiciary - the governing body of the judges - is for four years, that is what the Constitution states.

A democracy is a balance of powers between the judiciary, the executive and the legislature. The mandate of a government - the executive power - is for four years. Can you imagine a government or a Parliament deciding not to extend the mandate for four years but for six years, as is happening now in the mandate of the governing power of the judiciary? And furthermore, exceeding what the Constitution states. I feel that this means that our democracy is not working well, that of a central institution such as the governing body of the judiciary, and consequently the PP cannot detach itself from this situation, or from that of the Constitutional Court or from RTVE, or from the Ombudsman, or from the Transparency Council. What sense does a blockade make? The PP and Mr Casado should recognise the election results from 10 November and take on whether he really wants to be the Leader of the Opposition, because being the Leader of the Opposition does not merely mean having more seats than other political groups in the opposition, it means heading up the narrative of the opposition. When I hear the PP say no to everything because it is the alternative, what I say is that in such an unprecedented situation as the only the country is going through, the alternative should precisely be to get behind the effort.

Question: When you look back over these last few months, do you have the feeling that you have promptly informed the opposition of issues? One of the complaints made by Pablo Casado is precisely that he found things out from the press, as did other people, or through your press briefings. If you look back do you feel that you have done things right in terms of your level of communication with the Leader of the Opposition?

President of the Government: I am willing to put things right and I am someone who acknowledges their mistakes, but I feel two people can't dance if one doesn't want to, and what this progressive coalition government is seeing is the same as previous Socialist governments saw; President of the Government Zapatero was also blocked during the whole term of office by Mariano Rajoy in the renewal of the General Council of the Judiciary, and President of the Government Felipe González also had to face a merciless opposition.

The context is unprecedented now in which the PP exercises this natural way it has of being in the opposition. I feel that our citizens have also changed their perception of what they demand, of what they are calling for in these such unprecedented times and what they want is unity. They want us to put ourselves in their position, to put ourselves in the position of a fellow countryman who has lost a family member or of someone who is sick from COVID or of someone who doesn't know what is going to happen with the ERTEs - whether they will be extended or not - of someone who doesn't know what will happen with their business in the coming months, in short, what I would ask for from the PP and the opposition is that they put themselves in the position of all those millions of people who are looking to politics to give them stability, confidence and calm at a time in which we all need this if we want to recover the path of economic growth, social cohesion and job creation.

Question: Is the support from Europe in jeopardy if the Budget is not approved?

President of the Government: This Budget is compromised from the perspective of the government's capacity, and hence, that of all public authorities, because this is not only a question of this being managed by Central Government but also of being managed by the regional governments and local authorities; the absorption of this support is already compromised, and hence the level of its implementation. At this time, we do not have instruments recognised in the Budget to be able to absorb this huge volume of resources that will come from Europe, thanks to the efforts and generosity of European countries.

Question: In other words, the public accounts are essential to receive the money from Europe.

President of the Government: They are undoubtedly essential. They are not compromised from the perspective of the amount, but from the capacity of all the public authorities to manage them. And that is why this is important, in the awareness that the proposal is progressive; this needs to be a country Budget that transcends the traditional dialectic between one ideology and another.

Question: President of the Government, how are you handling the differences within the government? And don't tell me there aren't any.

President of the Government: There are. I will begin with the last point. I am very pleased with the loyalty and the functioning of the coalition government. I said this at my first council of Ministers and in many press briefings; for me once we managed to be invested and form a government there were no longer ministers or vice-presidents of the government from one party or another; they are all ministers of the Government of Spain and hence, they all have my trust, respect and absolute loyalty, and I truly believe that the functioning of the coalition government, which is the first experience of this kind in Spain's democracy and of understanding between two political forces that represent the left-wing in our country, is proving optimal in what is frankly a complex context, in the management of a pandemic and also in complying with the government agreement, and these two things, I have to say, are being complied with at this time.

Question: But, for example, when Pablo Iglesias questions the leadership of the Minister for Education, what do you do? Do you call him?

President of the Government: I have no evidence that this happened, I obviously did not hear that, but this was passed on to the media and on these matters as on many others, by talking a lot and listening, we can indeed share a political space that belongs to the left-wing, which is complex and heterogeneous, and we serve, understand and uphold traditional policies that are different, but I believe that the functioning of the coalition government is proving to be optimal. I stated this thought yesterday and I would like to share it with the listeners of Cadena Ser - the stability of the government is guaranteed over the 40 months of the remaining legislature. Stability and the permanence of the coalition government is guaranteed, but as well as stability we need this to be a fruitful legislature, and in order for it to be fruitful, the coalition government must work hard as it does not have a parliamentary majority, and we need 176 seats to talk about this majority, and hence we will need to talk with a lot of political groups in a very fragmented Lower House. And this exercise in dialogue will be carried out both internally and externally. But I stress, we are in a new political era and face an unprecedented test in managing a pandemic from a point of view of humility; while the loyalty and functioning of what we are doing is, in my opinion, frankly high.

Question: Talking about these disagreements, is what you most speak about the matter of the emeritus King?

President of the Government: We have also spoken about this matter which I described in this room as disturbing and worrying, but I also acknowledged the work being done by the Head of State and the Royal Household regarding how the reign of King Felipe VI is an exercise in enhanced exemplarity and secondly, I acknowledged the efforts he has made to detach himself from the non-exemplary alleged practices by the former Head of State.

Having said that, it is clear that the PSOE and UP have different cultures. We were the architects of the Spanish Constitution, the only ones remaining, the only party that signed this Constitution under the same name as now, and this was reflected in a letter that I sent out to the rank and file of the PSOE; there were other political formations that also signed this but their names have changed or they have disappeared. What I want to say by this is that we defend the constitutional accord, which cannot be broken down into pieces - it is a whole that reflects the parliamentary monarchy, as well as recording the rule on co-existence, and the rights and liberties that are assimilated in the European values and which have given us 40 years of prosperity and democracy and which I believe are fundamental to preserve. By saying this I can conclude that during this pandemic we are undergoing, in a health, social and economic emergency, then what we clearly need is stability, and this stability is guaranteed by the coalition government and by me personally.

Question: Did the government try and ensure that the emeritus King did not go to Saudi Arabia?

President of the Government: Those were not the terms of the conversation that I had with the Head of State. Clearly the Royal Household is a separate institution, it takes its own decisions and the only thing I can do in this regard is respect the confidentiality of my conversations with the Head of State, and secondly, respect the decision taken.

Question: And don't the people deserve to know how much the security of the emeritus King costs?

President of the Government: Well, that is regulated by the law. It is clear what this is in terms of abdication and in the succession by the former King to the current Head of State - to King Felipe VI - and what the conditions and legal status are of the emeritus King.

Question: And how much does it cost? Aren't the people entitled to know this more clearly?

President of the Government: Clearly, anything that is done to make things more exemplary and transparent by any institution is most welcome; I have always said this in all my public appearances.

Question: Do you still feel that we will come out of this crisis better off?

President of the Government: Yes, absolutely because firstly we have a problem since people in Spain generally talk badly about Spain when in Spain but not when outside Spain. Any Spaniard that talks about Spain from outside the country talks more positively about it than when inside the country. We have our capacities, we have power, we have companies, workers, qualifications, scientists, young people that want to change the country, we have a business fabric from small micro-SMEs to large corporations, and what we also have is the volume of resources to transform our economy.

I believe that the ecological transition we must undertake, the digital transition, the necessary territorial cohesion so that our regions do not diverge, and thus guarantee equal opportunities for each and every one of our regions, are the core elements of the recovery programme that we will implement from the Government of Spain. And this is something I call on everyone to do, not just the public authorities; the Government of Spain is called on, as is the smallest local authority and the largest regional government, the whole of society, the scientific community, teachers, the cultural industry, business owners, all those who want to place the common good first and foremost - the recovery of our country and precisely overcoming this pandemic.

Just look, very often when we speak and this is a personal reflection that I would like to pass on to listeners, when we speak about the spread of the pandemic in recent months, even after the state of emergency, our people are very concerned, and rightly so, what we have to do over the course of these weeks and months, and what we have done is beat the virus in areas of social relations, work relations, and ensure normality in many areas that were lost during the toughest times of the pandemic. And it is clear that there have been setbacks, but that must not make us give in, we must persist, we must continue to make progress, we must continue to win back quotas of freedom and space away from the virus, which is why I feel it is so decisive for the return to school to take place this week and next with all due guarantees and all safety measures in place, whilst taking into account that there is no zero risk, but I think the minimum risk is guaranteed at this time by the regional governments and Central Government.

Question: President of the Government, to finish as regards the Council of Ministers… I am being signalled, just two more questions plus the opening one, with the number of transmissions so high, without a Budget, which is one of the main concerns, with the economic situation that we are in, I have read interviews with the Minister for Foreign Affairs and also the Minister for Social Security, who talk about a certain optimism regarding the economic recovery. What is this optimism based on?

President of the Government: Well, in the advance figures we have. The number of National Insurance contributors in August has been very positive. Secondly, the reactivation of workers on an ERTE is proving to be quite positive. Let's remember that at the most difficult time of the pandemic, we had some 3.4 million people on an ERTE; and that's with round numbers. Right now, this stands at under 700,000 workers on those ERTEs on grounds of force majeure as a result of the pandemic, and we are seeing an upturn in the economy in the third quarter, as indicated yesterday by the Third Vice-President of the Government and Minister for Economic Affairs of above 10% quarter-on-quarter.

Hence, I believe that although we are in a delicate situation with a great many uncertainties stemming from the spread of the pandemic, the resilience and flexibility being shown by companies and workers, and also by our economy as a whole, indicate and invite a moderate optimism as regards the recovery of our country.

At any event, I stress, we are seeing this upturn, we are recording these figures, but between us all we must make an effort to ensure that his recovery is bedded down, hence the importance of a new Budget, hence the importance of being able to channel the absorption of all these resources that we will receive next year without compromising them, precisely to make our economy much more resilient and transform it

Question: And my last question, President of the Government, although it means going back a little, because earlier I asked you about the departure of the King Emeritus, and asked if you had done anything, or if the government had done anything, and you said to me that those were not the terms with which you spoke with the Royal Household. I repeat, what did you speak about with the Royal Household?

President of the Government: No, no. Let me stress that I owe a duty of confidentiality to the meetings I have with the Head of State, but the terms of these talks are not made in these terms, within these parameters, in these tones and in these ways, they are completely different. These are two different institutions - the executive and, in this case, the Royal Household - the Crown - but what I can guarantee is that institutional stability is a priority for us at a time of health, economic and social emergency. And of course I am not forgetting the roots or the past or the historic narrative of the PSOE, which is the architect of the Constitutional Agreement, and let me stress this, the Constitutional Agreement cannot be divided up, it is a whole, which implies and commits to the lasting nature of the parliamentary monarchy.

Question: President of the Government, thank you very much, good luck because in the end your luck will be the luck of all of us. I truly wish you good luck. Thank you very much.

President of the Government: Thank you very much as well. A pleasure.

(Transcript edited by the State Secretariat for Communication)

Non official translation