Address by the President of the Government of Spain during his visit to the facilities of the engineering company Inventia Kinetics Getafe

Getafe (Madrid)

ADDRESS BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE GOVERNMENT OF SPAIN, PEDRO SÁNCHEZ

Well, thanks to the management of Inventia and, of course, thanks to its workers who are with us.

I believe that this COVID-19 crisis leaves us with two lessons that I would like to underline and recall. The first has to do with what we call re-industrialisation. We say that in Europe, one of the main lessons to be learned is how to re-industrialise, how to create jobs, good jobs, decent jobs, stable jobs. This is linked to re-industrialisation.

On many occasions we think of large industries, large corporations, but we forget that behind these tractor companies and on their sides, there are small and medium-sized industrial companies, such as the one we see here at Inventia in Getafe. And I would like to highlight this.

I would like to highlight this fact from the Government of Spain, and Europe, of course. European funds also have a lot to do with this. What we want is to make a firm commitment to the re-industrialisation of Europe and the re-industrialisation of our country.

The second lesson that I would also like to share with the workers and also with the management of this small medium-sized company, Inventia, is that this pandemic, as has been said before, must strengthen the links, must strengthen collaboration and cooperation between companies in the value chain, in the aeronautical sector for example, but it must also strengthen the links between the public administration and the private sector.

Today, on my way here, I was reading a report from a university that said that without the temporary lay-offs, without the ERTEs, our country would most probably have suffered unemployment rates of 42%. Today, fortunately, also thanks to the ERTEs, that also told me that you are all back in your jobs, we have an unemployment rate of 13.3%. We have more than 20 million employed people in employment figures that we have not had since 2008, that is, since before the financial crisis.

And this also has a lot to do with all the efforts made by companies and public administrations to protect employment and the productive fabric during the most complicated moments of the pandemic, and subsequently to adapt these labour protection mechanisms and also the ICO loans to the reactivation and economic recovery that we are currently experiencing in our country.

And this public-private partnership must now be extended to one of the main challenges facing our country, which is the modernisation of our productive fabric and the re-industrialisation of our country.

And in this sense, when we talk about European funds, which are a great opportunity to create jobs, create companies and re-industrialise our country, I believe it is essential to highlight the fact that these European funds should reach those companies, such as Inventia, such as this small medium-sized company linked to such an important industrial sector as the aeronautical sector.

Therefore, with my presence, with the presence of the Government of Spain, what I would like to convey to the workers and the management of companies such as yours like Inventia is the commitment, the total commitment of Spain, to ensure that these European funds reach small and medium-sized companies.

Because at the end of the day, when we talk about re-industrialisation, we are talking about companies like yours, so I think we have a lot of work ahead of us. I believe that what lies ahead of us will undoubtedly be much better than the last two years that we have suffered as a result of COVID-19. And I want to testify with my presence that these European funds are a great opportunity to modernise our country, to make our country grow, to re-industrialise our country. And that workers, management, we are going to be in this, we are going to be in this collaboration and in regularising our country.

So thank you very much for your welcome, for your hospitality and I wish you all the luck in the world, because your luck, of course, is the luck of our country.

(Transcript edited by the State Secretariat for Communication)
Non official translation