Press conference by the president of the Government to review the political to review the political year

Moncloa Palace, Madrid

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

Good morning and thank you, first of all, to the media for attending this now classic and traditional press conference in which we in the Executive intend to give an account to the citizens of the Government's actions over the last six months. First of all, I would like to thank the Cabinet Office unit of the Presidency of the Government for preparing the 'Cumpliendo' report and also, logically, to thank the citizens who, through the social networks, are following this appearance.

Well, as you know, we are at the halfway point of the legislature. There is, however, a lot of work to be done and a long legislature ahead. The two years remaining until the general election in 2027, the Progressive Coalition Government faces them with the same determination and also the same energy as the previous seven years. And the data, moreover, does not lie, it invites this conviction and this determination. Spain is moving forwards strongly and in the best of directions. Spain, therefore, goes on and on. And it is doing so, moreover, in a very complex, very difficult international context such as the current, while our country is experiencing one of the most prosperous periods in its democratic history and we also want this prosperity to gain greater momentum over the next two years.

At this very moment, for example, when I am speaking to you, there are 352,000 tourists heading to our country by car, by boat or by plane. This year we will welcome more than 100 million people, according to all projections. And frankly, if 100 million people visit us, 100 million people can't be wrong. If they choose Spain among the hundreds of countries in the world, it is because they know that Spain works, that it is a safe country, that it is a developed country and that it is a country to be discovered, as well as being an open and tolerant country. That's why they decide to spend the best days of their year here. Because of our beaches, our heritage, our gastronomy, our nature, our culture, but also because we have one of the best digital and physical infrastructures in the West, because we have a first-class health system, because we have a vibrant productive fabric that offers unique public services and public goods, and because we have the safest streets, I won't say in the world, but almost.

In fact, the international media, such as the Washington Post, speaks of the new Spanish dream, or the British The Guardian considers us the most dynamic country in Europe. Forbes magazine has named Spain as one of the best places in the world to live. That is our image abroad. That is what Spain represents today for millions and millions of foreign citizens.

An image to which, logically, the successes of our sport also contribute. There are the triumphs in the World Swimming Championships, where we won 12 medals, with special mention to artistic swimming, diving and water polo, or the stellar performance of our Spanish women's football team, a team that is evidently already a legend, whose talent and capacity for effort speak to the world of the talent and capacity for effort that our country has and, therefore, my most sincere congratulations to all of them.

In any case, to return to the review of the government's action, I believe that many of these realities, or rather, let's put it another way, none of the realities I am describing are the result of chance or inertia. Prosperity, social welfare, environmental sustainability do not come about by themselves. They are the result of the collective work of 48 million Spanish citizens who obviously work hard to make their country great, of the thousands of emigrants who also help us to achieve this through their efforts and the talent of the SMEs, the self-employed, who also achieve this result, as well as the NGOs, the large companies and, of course, all the public administrations of all political persuasions, whom I would also like to thank for their efforts in this appearance.

But it is also clear that, in part, Spain's good development is due to the project of the progressive coalition government that I have had the honour of leading over for the last seven years. And in this context, as you know, and at the halfway point of the legislature, it is worth remembering that two years ago we set five major priorities for this legislature and today I would like to report on the progress made in each of them over the last six months.

I will begin with the first, as you know, the economy and employment, and I believe that the data is very positive because for yet another year, and for the third consecutive year, and while we await the evolution of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) that we will know tomorrow from the quarterly National Accounts, for the third consecutive year, Spain will be the large European economy that is growing the most, according to all the international organisations. And we will do so, moreover, by growing faster than the European Union of advanced economies as a whole. And this is in an extraordinarily complex geopolitical and international context.

As you know, in 2024 a magazine such as The Economist named Spain as the best economy of the year. And now I think we are on our way back to the top of the table, if not first. A success that would have seemed impossible a decade ago. And this is precisely the graph that demonstrates the success of the Spanish economy, especially compared to neighbouring economies. The European Union has an economic growth forecast for 2025 of 1.1%, while for Spain we have an economic growth forecast of 2.6%. Tomorrow we will have the quarterly national accounts data. We will know exactly whether we are on track to reach the 2.6% target at the end of the year.

In any case, what is certain is that the employment data that we got a few days ago does show that the Spanish economy continues to grow very strongly in comparison with other economies and in an international context that is so complex. In fact, I think it is very important that we have once again broken the ceiling for Social Security membership, for the number of employed people, which now stands at 22,268,000 people. And I think this is also very relevant, because of those 22 million employed people, more than 10 million of them are women. And we have never had such important, such forceful figures for female membership as we have today. I believe that this is very important and shows the strength of the Spanish economy and also the importance of the contribution of women to the economic growth and prosperity of our country.

Practically nine out of ten wage earners in our country have permanent contracts and this is mainly related to the labour reform that we passed during the last legislature.

And there are also the figures for the unemployment rate, which has fallen to 10.3%; the lowest since 2008. Therefore we are already focusing on the fact that we can finish what the Government of Spain forecasts for the end of the legislature, single-digit unemployment figures and not double-digit, as we have had over the last 15 years.

The data does not lie. Spain is moving forwards and its citizens are moving forwards with it, because this is also what is important, not only that the macro figures are what they are, and we welcome them, but also that this is something that is redistributed to the population as a whole.

It is true that some people persist in saying time and again that Spaniards are poorer today than they were seven years ago, but this is simply and plainly false, because, in fact, the data shows that the combination of economic policies and reforms being implemented by this government and social policies, i.e., redistribution of income and wealth, also among the Spanish population, has meant that the real disposable income of Spanish households is 9% higher today than it was in 2018. I repeat, 9% higher than in 2018.

What does this mean? Well, this means for the citizens who are following this appearance, that even if we take inflation into account, and we have had periods as a result of the war in Ukraine of very high double-digit inflation, such as we have not had in decades, well, even if we take inflation into account, the average household in Spain today has 9% more purchasing power. This is well reflected both in the increase in consumption and also in savings, which have risen from an average of 2,500 euros in 2018 to 7,200 euros today.

I know that we are still far from achieving what we all want, which is to close the purchasing power gap that has historically separated us from the rest of Europe, but I also know that after each decade of setbacks we have recovered the right direction to achieve it. And then there is the data on how household purchasing power is increasing. The average from 2018 to 2023 of 16% in terms of the increase in the cost of living and how that income has increased to 27%, that purchasing power of households to 27% and, therefore, 9% more as I said earlier in my presentation.

This progress, and in the best of directions, can also be seen when we look at entrepreneurial dynamism. Just one fact: more than 36 billion euros of foreign direct investment was received in 2024. Again, 36 billion euros in foreign direct investment, the second best figure since 1993, no less. Since 1993, we have not had figures for foreign direct investment as important as those we have right now, in this case for 2024, which is the latest data available.

Moreover, so far this year, the Ibex, i.e. the Spanish stock market, has risen 22%. In the last year alone, almost 50,000 new companies have been created in Spain and there have been expansions, profound modernisations of many of the existing industries, largely thanks to the support of the NextGenerationEU funds that we used alone because we did not have the support of the opposition during the worst moment, the most dramatic moment of the pandemic.

To put it in figures, 815,000 companies, mainly small and medium-sized, have already benefited from NextGenerationEU funds. Spain is also currently the EU country that has received the most non-refundable funds. And we are doing so, moreover, ahead of large countries such as Italy and France, and we are doing so thanks to the fulfilment of the milestones established by the European Commission.

On many occasions you will have heard it said, and I am sure that in the media and later in the press conference, in the questions, this is echoed, that we do not pass laws, that we do not promote reforms. Well, the living proof that these milestones, these reforms, these transformations, are being implemented is that we are the European Union country that has received the most non-refundable funds from the NextGenerationEU funds, and this has everything to do with the fulfilment of an agenda of transformations, of reforms, of milestones that we committed to and that we agreed with the European Commission in order to receive these funds.

Just a fortnight ago, in fact, the fifth disbursement of more than 24 billion euros was approved, which means that Spain will have received 55 billion euros, i.e., 70% of the transfers allocated.

Therefore, we are talking about an unparalleled effort that is logically behind the economic transformation that Spain is undergoing or benefiting from, and which has a lot to do with the reformist impulse that the government has been giving to our economy, to our society in all areas, from the educational point of view to the point of view of the energy transformation, the digital impulse or also the policy of strategic autonomy, in short, the reindustrialisation of the Spanish economy. There you have the data.

These are the Next funds that we are receiving, the subsidies in particular from Brussels, as a result of meeting the milestones and, therefore, what has been agreed with the Community Executive.

Spain, in any case, in the stock of foreign direct investment, in the evolution of the stock market or even in the fulfilment of the schedule of milestones with the EU executive, if anything, it inspires confidence and optimism among investors and businesspeople, both national and international. It is no longer news that there are large investment funds, large foreign investors who, when they talk about Europe, turn their gaze on our country. I believe this is a particularly important, valuable asset in the current scenario of global uncertainty. An asset that we must all protect together.

That is why four months ago we launched this Contingency Plan, the first European country to do so, with 14 billion euros in aid to deal with the impact of the trade war that was launched by the US administration a few months ago.

And that is also why, when we talk about the blackout and the non-validation of the Royal Decree-Law on electricity measures, a week ago in the Lower House of Parliament, what the Government of Spain is doing is to see which of all these measures can be approved, not by a Royal Decree-Law, but by a Royal Decree that will make our system more resilient. And that is what the third vice-president of the government is working on right now.

In any case, those other measures, as I said last week, which will need the backing of Parliament, we will obviously bring them back to the Lower House of Parliament as soon as possible.

Because, and this is the message I would mainly like to convey to the industry, is that in the face of the irresponsible opportunism of some, Spanish industry must know that it will always be able to count on the commitment of the Government of Spain and that sooner or later, no matter how much noise there is, no matter how many obstacles they try to put in the way, we will move forwards with the measures that are necessary to make the electricity system in our country more resilient.

The first priority, therefore, which I set two years ago: the economy and employment.

The second, as you know, is the strengthening of our welfare state and I believe that we are achieving this.

There are many examples in the field of health, for example, we have adopted a new mental health action plan. We have increased the number of psychologist interns and psychologist residents by 11%. We have promoted something very important for me, and I think also for Spanish society as a whole after the pandemic, which is the State Public Health Agency, and we have created a grant of 100 euros for all young people under the age of 16 who need support to access glasses or contact lenses. Specialised health training, there is the data, we have reached 12,366 places called for 2026, that is, 54% more than in 2018 and in medicine alone we have opened 9,276 places and there you have the evolution and commitment in terms of specialised health training, we have increased since 2018 significantly, although there is obviously still a long way to go in this aspect.

In Education, and here is the minister, spokesperson and also Minister for Education and Vocational Training. The data is there. 15,400 new public places for children from 0 to 3 years old that we have created. We have granted scholarships to 964,000 students, 23% more than when Mariano Rajoy's administration was in power. I believe that this is an example not only of our commitment to equal opportunities, but also to meritocracy.

Scholarships, 2.5 billion euros, almost 1 million children benefit in one way or another from this policy of equal opportunities and merit promoted by the Government of Spain.

There are many other measures we have put in place. I would especially like to highlight the fact that we have created 368 new training offers, 53,000 new vocational training places, which means a total of 380,000 new vocational training places have been created since the beginning of the NextGenerationEU funds. I think this is very important. If my figures are correct, minister, we already have one million students in vocational training. At the beginning of the 2018 legislature, we amended the Vocational Training Act and, in short, I believe that we have given a boost where there is no longer vocational training in one way or another, there is only one, which is dual vocational training, and this also has a lot to do with reducing the school dropout rate and improving the employability of our young people.

Strengthening our welfare state also means continuing to reinforce social benefits, which is why the Government has injected no less than an additional 1.8 billion euros into the Social Security Reserve Fund in the last six months. We have once again revalued pensions, we have increased minimum pensions by 6%, non-contributory pensions by 9%, so that, in short, our elderly can have a dignified old age, the one they deserve and which they earned with the sweat of their brow.

That is why we have also increased funding for dependency for the third consecutive year with 783 million euros.

And that is why I would also like to announce that the progressive coalition government will bring to the Council of Ministers tomorrow an historic extension of birth and care leave, and thanks to this, citizens will now be able to enjoy three more weeks of paid leave to care for their children, which will be added to the 16 weeks that were already in force thanks to the social policies that this Executive has promoted. An important new feature is that the last two weeks can be used flexibly until the child reaches the age of eight and can therefore be used retroactively for families whose children were born on or after 2 August 2024. Finally, single parents, 80% of whom, as you know, are women, will now be entitled to 32 weeks of parental leave for childbirth and care, compared to the current 16 weeks.

What I mean by this is that in contrast to the cuts we suffered in the past, today there is a constant and persistent expansion of rights by the Government of Spain and, therefore, what we are doing is strengthening our welfare state and also making ordinary families, the people, the beneficiaries of these policies.

However, we are well aware that there is still a lot of work to be done.

We know that Spain continues to record unacceptable levels of poverty and inequality, particularly when it comes to child poverty, which is why what we are doing with the minimum basic income is important.

We also know that in many autonomous communities, health, education and care are losing ground to conservative administrations that are dismantling the public system in order to sell them to the highest bidder to private companies.

And we also know that access to decent housing remains an impossibility for thousands of citizens. This, as I said in my inauguration speech two years ago, is a priority issue for the Government. An issue that requires determination, time, commitment, financial resources. This is an issue that largely depends on other administrations, on local autonomous administrations, which are the ones that are fundamentally responsible, but we are also aware, as I have said on many occasions, the progressive coalition Executive is tackling with all the resources at its disposal and with all possible determination, that we can raise the fifth pillar of the welfare state, which is housing, because, ultimately, we know that until we solve this problem we will not solve or further reduce one of the main dramas that our society suffers from, which is inequality.

That is why we are taking action, and I believe that some of the figures are encouraging this good direction, optimism in this good direction, because in the last six months we have increased the number of social housing units by no more and no less than 8%. And we have also contributed to a 13% increase in new construction to the highest in 12 years. And I believe that you will now see the number of social housing units that are already being built or are in the construction phase in recent times, and we can see exactly what the evolution of 2024 is and I am convinced that it will continue to be very positive in 2025.

Along with this, as you know, and we are going to place it in the city of Valencia, we have launched the strategic project, the PERTE for the industrialisation of housing, with 1.3 billion euros. We have transformed a public company such as SEPES into the public housing company at a state level, transferring more than 2 million square metres of public land on which we will be able to build more than 50,000 new subsidised or affordable housing units.

We have created public guarantee programmes for landlords who rent their flats at a fair price, we eliminated the Golden Visa that encouraged property speculation. We have deployed measures to limit to control the proliferation of tourist flats in our cities. We have enabled the removal of more than 65,000 illegal ads on the Airbnb digital platform. In short, we are deploying a whole range of public policy action on all fronts, from construction to the regulation of aspects such as the registration of tourist flats to tackle the main problem facing our young people, but also many families, which is access to housing.

Finally, we are also managing to ensure that new territories and above all new municipalities, even if they are governed at regional level by the People's Party, can take advantage of the Housing Law, a law that many, unfortunately, continue to try or materially boycott for absolutely ideological reasons, despite the fact that where it is in force it is already managing to reduce the price, for example, of rents by up to 9%, without cutting supply or harming landlords.

I always give the same example, when we implemented the Iberian solution, which made it possible, among other things, during the war in Ukraine, to greatly reduce the price of electricity. In our country, the same old neoliberalism, public intervention in a market that clearly did not work, was criticised by the same old people. We are doing the same here. We are intervening in the market. It needs time, but I am convinced that if we continue to persist with this policy and these policies, we will be laying the foundations for the fifth pillar of the Welfare State, which is housing. There is still a lot of work to be done, but I think we are moving in the right direction and we will make more progress in the next six months.

In fact, at the last Conference of Regional Presidents, as you know, in Barcelona, we launched a new State Housing Plan that triples public investment in this area, going from the 2.3 billion euros that we are investing in the 2022-2025 period to no less than 7 billion euros over the next five years. That's from 2.3 billion to 7 billion.

There are autonomous communities that have shown, let's put it this way, their interest in joining this initiative. Others, for ideological reasons, not because citizens do not suffer from a housing problem, have refused outright. In any case, we are going to work with those autonomous communities that also want to continue to support public intervention, when we talk, for example, about construction or rehabilitation, because we believe that this is what we are responsible for. Resources, conviction and politics and policies, which is what we are doing when we talk about housing.

The third priority we set for this legislature, as you know, is adaptation and mitigation to the climate emergency.

You know that in 2018 the first measure we took was the declaration of a climate emergency in our country and, since then, we have had a consistent policy on energy transformation and on adaptation and mitigation to this climate emergency.

This six-month period we have promoted very important measures and laws, for example, the Law on the Prevention of Food Losses and Food Waste, which will help, among other things, to prevent more than 1.3 million tonnes of food in good condition from being wasted in our country every year. Until this law was implemented and passed, 1.3 million tonnes of good food was being wasted. That is the equivalent of all the food that goes into 26 million domestic refrigerators in our country.

We have strengthened the protection of our ecosystems. We have declared ten new special areas of conservation within the Natura 2000 network. We have extended the Moves III programme, which you know is about boosting electric and connected cars in our country. And we have managed to reduce our CO2 emissions associated with electricity generation by 17% compared to the previous year.

I believe that this is a source of pride for our country, because we are obviously growing and the Spanish economy is growing strongly when compared with other European economies.

But we are also doing so not only with quality employment, with social cohesion, but also with a fairly significant reduction, for example, compared to 2018, of greenhouse gases and therefore CO2.

I believe that this has a lot to do with a policy where economic growth is combined with ecological transition and we demonstrate, in the face of those who either deny the science or deny the data and evidence, that growth can be achieved and CO2 emissions can be reduced.

What is more, what all this does is to increase the competitiveness of an economy that is committed to this ecological transition as a vector element of its economic growth fundamentals.

These are all actions that, for example, have led the latest ranking by a prestigious US university, Yale University, to state that Spain is the fifth most sustainable large economy in the world. I repeat: the fifth most sustainable major economy in the world.

And this is not by chance. As I said at the beginning of my speech, it is a firm commitment by citizens as a whole, workers, employers and, of course, also the various public administrations, unfortunately not all of them are with us in this, but under the leadership of the Government of Spain.

Even so, it is clear that we cannot become complacent, because the truth is that climate change, the climate emergency, continues to advance and that Spain, along with many other European countries, is still far from being the green and resilient country we dream of.

In fact, I would like to take this opportunity to express our solidarity with those European countries, particularly Mediterranean countries, which are currently suffering heat waves and also very serious fires, as we are seeing in the media.

Therefore, I believe it is very important to continue decarbonising our economy, our industry, for which we are going to publish the next calls for European funds for this purpose at the end of the summer.

We must also continue to promote the circularity of our production systems, so that waste becomes a major resource industry for other industries.

This is why we must continue to support renewable energies, storage and energy interconnections, as we have been doing for the last seven years.

In this sense, I believe that the decree law that some parliamentary groups rejected last week, which I referred to earlier, will be key, because I believe that the ecological transition cannot and should not be a bargaining chip with which to market perks or project non-existent ideological divisions to the electorate. All citizens, no matter how they vote, benefit from this commitment, which is backed by data and scientific evidence, to the energy transformation and ecological transition of our country.

The ecological transition cannot be that, it must be, in any case, a social consensus, a moral obligation, an economic opportunity for all, not only the citizens, but also the territories as a whole.

Because, furthermore, as I said before, the experience of recent years shows that this ecological transition can be one of the great engines of growth, innovation, and social and territorial cohesion in our country. Therefore, those who vote against this type of royal decree law are not voting against the Government of Spain, they are voting against the interests of our country.

The fourth priority we have announced for this legislature is the strengthening of our institutions, including our territorial cohesion.

You know that one of the tasks to which we have devoted most effort in recent weeks and months has been the fight against corruption, to which I believe we have responded promptly and forcefully, collaborating with the justice system and the State Law Enforcement Forces and Agencies and remedying the situation in order to remove it from political life.

To this end, on 9 July, the Government of Spain presented an ambitious plan to fight corruption, with 15 measures that will help to reinforce the prevention, detection and punishment of practices that should never occur in our democracy, with the collaboration of a major multilateral organisation; the OECD.

At the same time, the progressive coalition government has worked to improve the quality of our judicial system, applying the new Organic Law on the Efficiency of the Public Justice Service, approving a draft Organic Law for the expansion and strengthening of the judicial and prosecutorial careers, which will further guarantee equal opportunities, attract talent and mobilise no fewer than 1,300 scholarships for those young people who want to prepare for a competitive examination to enter the judiciary and who previously, due to a lack of economic resources, could not afford to take this type of examination.

In the area of territorial cohesion, I believe that we have achieved two very important advances for all territorial administrations in the last six months.

On one hand, the cancellation of the autonomous region's public debt, amounting to 83 billion euros. And on the other hand, the approval last week of 147 billion euros and 28.734 billion euros in interim payments, the former for the autonomous communities and the latter for local entities.

These are two very important measures, as I have said, which are going to allow these entities to have a greater volume of resources, the greatest volume of resources they have ever had in their history. And there you have the evolution of the resources of the autonomous financing system that the autonomous communities now enjoy, as a consequence not only of the good progress of the economy, but also of the Government of Spain's commitment to co-governance.

They have data there that is absolutely historic and certainly unparalleled compared to what we were left with back in 2018 by the Conservative administration.

I would also like to recall one of the main laws of this legislature, which is the Amnesty Law, which has been endorsed by the Constitutional Court, which upheld the full constitutionality of the Amnesty Law. I believe that this is extraordinary news for a country that is working for reunion and coexistence among the peoples of Spain.

The fifth and final priority I would like to address is foreign policy. An ambitious foreign policy that I would say is also committed to international law.

Two years ago I pledged to continue raising Spain's international profile, to use that profile to defend solidarity, openness to the world and peace in a world increasingly battered by different wars. I believe that with coherence and with the same determination, both in Europe, when we spoke of Putin's war in Ukraine, and in the Middle East, when we spoke of the humanitarian catastrophe that the Palestinian people are suffering, before humble countries, before leaders of powerful countries, that coherence has also been practised and I believe that we are honestly achieving it. I say this not only in words, but also in deeds.

And I believe that, furthermore, whatever the citizens vote, they will be very much in line, with the policies that we have achieved and that the Government of Spain is promoting in foreign affairs.

We have maintained a firm, constructive position on the 5% defence budget at the NATO summit in The Hague. We have reached an historic agreement with the UK on Gibraltar. We have committed a new package of 1 billion euros in military assistance to Ukraine, while we are opening a Ukraine House to support the more than 245,000 refugees already in our country, and we are also promoting the reconstruction of Ukraine, sponsoring new condemnations of Prime Minister Netanyahu's government in the European Commission at the United Nations, articulating with 192 other countries a new financial boost to the International Development System, thanks to the holding of the United Nations Summit in Seville, and announcing an ambitious plan to increase and optimise support for multilateralism, now that some Western powers are cutting back, if not reducing, their presence in the multilateral order.

I think that the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza requires special mention once again, because the famine in Gaza is a disgrace for the whole of humanity. And stopping it, therefore, is a moral imperative, it is a humanitarian imperative and it is a political imperative.

And in this regard, I would like to inform you that the Government of Spain is preparing to send thousands of kilos of food for the Gaza Strip, which if circumstances do not change, and we demand that they do not change, will take place this Friday from Jordan and using parachutes and aircraft from the Spanish Armed Forces. It is clearly not a solution to hunger, we know that, but we hope that together with shipments from other nations, it will provide a minimum of relief.

We know the solution. The real solution is for Prime Minister Netanyahu and his government to activate a ceasefire as soon as possible, to open the humanitarian land corridor fully and definitively, and to put an end to this barbarism.

Finally, the government promised to deploy an ambitious, coherent international agenda.

I believe we are doing so. Our actions also demonstrate a real commitment to peace, to solidarity, to cooperation between nations, because we know that zero-sum thinking, which some are trying to turn into the new guiding principle of the global order, does not work, is unjust and is also dangerous.

Because humanity progresses when it collaborates and sinks into the hole when it is pitted against each other. We have seen this many times throughout history and there is therefore no need to see it again now.

I conclude now with a message of some optimism. Well-founded optimism, optimism based on data. Because so far in this legislature, there are the economic, social, environmental, social cohesion, territorial cohesion and, of course, the international and European projection of the Government, so far in this legislature, the progressive coalition government has managed to pass 42 laws and, therefore, fulfilled 45% of the 200 commitments we made to the citizens in 2023.

In other words, at the halfway point of the Legislature we have managed to move forwards with 45% of the commitments we made to citizens two years ago.

Achieving this has not been easy. Every step had to be negotiated. Here is the Minister for Parliamentary Relations. We have won 86% of the votes in the Lower House. These percentages are very similar to those of the last seven years.

Each parliamentary victory has obviously filled us with joy and, when we have not had parliamentary backing, we have been filled with determination and conviction to reintroduce and take forward those things that we considered to be in the general interest of our country. I think the State Public Health Agency is a good example of how you lose a vote in the first instance, but then you bring it back to Parliament. The pity is that it did not achieve the same media coverage as the first time, but in any case it is not a bad thing that these types of measure end up benefiting citizens as a whole, in this case strengthening an architecture to face future public health crises such as the one we experienced in 2020 with the COVID-19 pandemic, are going ahead.

In short, we know that behind each of these laws, therefore, what we have is a good measure for the people, because in the end we manage to get what is important out, as happened during the last legislature, in which majorities were also elusive, in which we had a similar ratio of parliamentary victories and defeats.

We will continue on this path in the next two years. We will fight for every vote, every law, there is no other, looking after the interests of the social majority against the privileges of the elites, and promoting a social, economic, environmental, progressive and ambitious agenda. A worthwhile agenda, the results of which are plain to see for those who really want to see them.

Our compatriots will now enjoy a well-deserved holiday break. They are going to do it in one of the best performing countries in Europe and the world. A country with absolutely record growth and employment figures, with inequality and poverty levels that are lower than in 2018, lower than in the last decade and a half, and with the second fastest growing purchasing power in the OECD as a whole, i.e. among the world's most developed economies. And also with a productive fabric, and I would like to say this, and a mobility system that is increasingly green and with an international vocation that is respected and recognised around the world.

This is the real Spain. It is clearly not a perfect country, it faces many challenges ahead, but it is improving year after year on most indicators and is regarded halfway around the world as a model of success.

That is the Spain we have built, the Spain we are building, the Spain we have and the Spain we want. The Spain that goes on and on. Spain is moving forwards with strength and in the best of directions, which is always forwards.

And with this, I would like to take questions from the media, but not before thanking all of them and the citizens who have followed this appearance on the social networks for their patience.

QUESTIONS FROM THE MEDIA

Natalia Junquera (El País): Good morning, Mr President. I would like to ask you two questions, if I may. The first relates to the agreement that Ursula von der Leyen has signed with Donald Trump, whereby the EU accepts 15% tariffs from the United States, with no such imposition in reverse. Are you in favour of such an agreement and if you think that tariffs should be put back? And in general, how do you think the European Union and Spain, in particular, should respond to Donald Trump's economic and foreign policy policies? Do you think enough has been done, in particular on the Gaza issue, for example, or what more can be done? You know that Feijóo has called you frivolous for some of the statements you have made in the past.

And on corruption. This year a Democratic Regeneration Plan has been presented, another State Anti-Corruption Plan, which has left out some measures that the Council of Europe and some organisations have been proposing for years, such as the issue of advisors, which is one of the areas they point to as a risk of corruption. Do you think it would be possible, or are you thinking about it, to restrict advisors, so that they are technicians of the Administration, and not political appointees, as some organisations are proposing? In other words, is the system prepared to prevent a new Koldo García? Thank you very much.

Response: Well, thank you very much, Natalia. On the trade agreement that we learned about yesterday evening, I have always said the same thing: I appreciate the effort made by the European Commission. I appreciate the constructive and negotiating attitude of the President of the European Commission and, in any case, I support this trade agreement. But I do so without any enthusiasm.

As for what Europe has to do, I think that one of the main lessons we have to learn from everything we are seeing on the international stage, especially when we talk about the US administration, is that we Europeans have to get our act together, in all areas: in strategic autonomy, in trade relations with other countries... And in fact, last week, I was in two of the countries that are part of Mercosur and what I hope and wish is that Spain will obviously be heard by other countries that are currently opposing or have doubts about this trade agreement between the European Union and Mercosur. I believe that this is the way forwards. We have to diversify our trade relations; to do so with regions, regional blocs from a trading point of view, which also want to understand and agree with Europe, as is the case with Mercosur, and to follow the line set out by President Von der Leyen, in her desire to reach agreements, in this case with Indonesia and India before the end of the year. I think that is the line, to diversify our trade relations. I support this trade agreement, but without any enthusiasm.

On corruption, I have to tell you that there are two levels. One on democratic quality, where we were talking about how to implement in Spain what was approved in the European Parliament, linked to democratic quality and the fight against disinformation. And these are packages that we are already putting in place, both at the level of the Council of Ministers and also by proposing legislative amendments, at a parliamentary level. In fact, we have recently tabled some of the measures that were already included in this programme, in this plan to improve the quality of democracy, in the Lower House of Parliament. A plan that comes from a European mandate, in the sense that it was approved by the European Parliament, via a regulation.

And with regard to the reflection you make. Look, we have made this anti-corruption plan in collaboration with the OECD. We have also taken many of the recommendations of the Council of Europe itself, to which you referred earlier, and in any case, the parliamentary process is now beginning. We are a coalition government with a parliamentary minority and, therefore, all proposals made to other parliamentary groups will be welcome, in order to effectively reinforce everything that has failed in this case of corruption that has affected the Socialist Party, which I lead.

Lucía Fernández (Antena3): Hello, how are you? Good afternoon, Mr President, and thank you. You were just highlighting the votes you have won in the Lower House, but there is one thing you have not yet presented, and you have not done so for two years now, and that is the Budget. I wanted to ask you if you are going to submit a new Budget, even if you have not yet secured support, if you are committed to doing so. And along the same lines, if you do not manage to get a budget passed, are you considering an early election?

And then, secondly, the Government and its team insist that they have a parliamentary majority, but it is true that the investiture partners are increasingly distancing themselves. We also see this, for example, when they combine their votes with those of the People's Party. I wanted to ask you how you are going to regain the confidence of the partners and why you are so sure that you will continue to maintain that support. Thank you.

Response: Thank you very much for your questions. On the first, yes. The Government of Spain will submit the General State Budget for 2026. Secondly, we are going to draw up a General State Budget that is better, from a social point of view, which is already very good, by the way, and with which the Government of Spain has been working for some years now. And we will work with all the parliamentary groups to move forwards with this new General State Budget.

In any case, I will also tell you one thing. I have said this in some of the conversations I have had with you, both public and private, off-microphone. In addition to the General State Budget, we have a fantastic tool for the transformation, economic growth, job creation and modernisation of our country, which is the European funds. The European funds are also another budget, another track that we are incorporating into this commitment to modernisation, economic growth, job creation and social cohesion.

Of course, you say to me, are you going to submit the budget and what do you do if it doesn't get approved? We will work for it to be approved. But, of course, you want to answer all the questions before we have even submitted this budget. We are going to work. We are a coalition government with a parliamentary minority and we will work with all parliamentary groups to persuade them that this is a good budget. To meet the challenges that lie ahead for our country.

Legislatures last four years. Four years. The general election will be held in 2027. And I can already tell you that the People's Party, when this general election is held, the next day they will ask for an early election, as they have been doing for the last seven years. I don't know if it will be Mr Feijóo who asks for this early election again, but I can already tell you that this is what is going to happen to the People's Party, which has been asking for an election every day of the year for seven years. And of course, if in the end their strategy, which is already proven because they are still in opposition, is the same, then there is little we can say. They are a broken record. They ask for the same. We know what the alternative is. It is a Feijóo government with Abascal.

But, furthermore, I believe that the alternative is what this government is putting in place, with data, with facts, with figures that show that Spain is growing like the best in Europe; it is creating employment like never before in the last 15 years in our country and reducing inequality like we have not had for three decades. I therefore believe that there is every reason to remain determined in this policy of transformation, reform, modernisation and social and territorial cohesion.

Parliamentary majority. Let's see, we have a government partner, which is Sumar. The rest, in fact, are parliamentary groups that sometimes vote asymmetrically with us and other times do not vote for the proposals made by the Government of Spain. But there is no majority in the Lower House of Parliament, neither with one ideological orientation, nor with another ideological orientation. The fact is that something very common in European democracies, such as parliamentary fragmentation in the Spanish Parliament, the only party that can articulate positive majorities, not negative majorities, is the party that I am honoured to lead and the government that I am also honoured to lead. So I think there is nothing new under the sun. It is seven years of a coalition government in a parliamentary minority, but a government that - and there are the figures from the European Commission itself, which has just disbursed more than 24 billion euros because we have fulfilled the reform agenda and the milestones that we agreed more than five years ago with the European Commission in order to receive these funds.

Therefore, we have to gain confidence every day. If not, ask the ministers present here. Every day we have to earn the trust not only of the parliamentary groups, but also of the general public.

But I always say one thing, I think the most important thing is attitude. I believe it is important to have an attitude of humility, openness, the ability to negotiate, to listen to the parliamentary groups, to put oneself in their shoes, to know exactly that their interests are also legitimate. This is what the Government of Spain has been doing for seven years.

Those who do not do this are those who are in opposition. The fact is that right now the head of the opposition can only make agreements, and only from time to time, with one political group, VOX, and when he reaches an agreement, we have already seen what kind of agreement he reaches. In the autonomous communities where they govern there is no progress in rights; what there is, is a regression, a downturn. I don't want that for my country. I also believe that, at a time when we have this ultra-right coalition, both inside and outside governments, whether at regional or municipal level, the action of the progressive coalition government is very important, because we are the ones who safeguard, for example, the validity of the Law of Democratic Memory or the advances in gender equality, or the commitment to energy transformations linked to clean energies in the fight against climate change.

If this were not the case, Spain today would have downturn squared, not only in these territories, but also at a state level. Therefore, the Government's action is very important, very relevant, not only in this roadmap for progress, but also when it comes to safeguarding the rights that have already been won, consolidated and which are being restricted or questioned in the sphere of its competences, wherever the People's Party governs with the support of VOX.

José Miguel Blanco (EFE): Thank you, good morning, Mr President. You commented that the Government will submit the draft budget law. Pending negotiations, would a four-year legislature be feasible, as you say it will be, without any budget being approved? And that budget submission entails the need to negotiate with your partners. Do you see a possible agreement with parties such as Podemos, which are criticising the government ever more? And whether the next political year will be the moment when you could meet with former president Puigdemont, as you already expressed your intention to do in order to obtain his support for this budget.

Response.- Thank you. Well, with regard to the second question, Josemi, I have said that I am going to meet with all the political partners. The Amnesty Law is precisely to overcome the situation that was experienced in 2017 in our country. This is a country that is looking ahead to 2027, and so I will be meeting with all of them to discuss these issues and many others.

On whether it is feasible or not. Constitutionally, legislatures last four years. When the PP governs, it is always four years; when the PSOE governs, I don't know what happens, but it is four minutes in view of the People's Party.

Legislatures last four years and today the country has an economic situation that no other European country has. It has levels of job creation that many other executives before us do not have in their records. And therefore our political agenda is one that I believe that not only in words, but in deeds, is demonstrating how positive it is for our country and how beneficial it is for our country.

I understand why you are asking, but we have not yet presented the preliminary draft budget and you are already telling me if one or other parliamentary group is not going to support it. Look if we approached the work that way or any of us in our work or in our life, we would say "I'm going to do this, but if it doesn't work out..." Well, we're going to do it and we're going to fight for it to work out. But, come on, I don't think I'm not saying anything new, that each and every one of us present here should apply ourselves to our daily lives, in political life, in our professional life and in our personal life.

Josep Capella (TV3): Mr President, good afternoon. You have already said you are going to fight for every vote... You didn't answer Josemi about Podemos. I wanted to ask you, two of the allies that…

Response.- … is that we need all the votes at the same time, like the film.

Josep Capella (TV3) - … two of the usual allies, for example Esquerra and Junts, in the last few hours Mr Junqueras and Mr Puigdemont have warned you: they are very disappointed about the singular financing and are asking you to support or promote this political amnesty that is not being legally applied. Do you think you can persuade them, with the current state of affairs, to continue? You say that you have your batteries in, that you are strong, but do you think that this end, this second part of the legislature, is not with a certain sickness that can be faced in this situation?

Response: I think I have answered. You say I didn't answer… I'm going to give it a try. Why else would I submit the budget? I will try to persuade all parliamentary groups, as I have been doing, by the way, for seven years. And if you look at the percentages, the other day I was talking to some of the media on the trip we made to Latin America, in the first of the legislatures, it is true that we have had some that have had to be repeated, the percentage of parliamentary success in terms of votes was close to 90%, it was 89%. The next one was also very similar. In this one it is 86%.

Beyond the debate, beyond what can be said by the opposition, the Government of Spain is moving forwards with its roadmap. In two years, we have fulfilled 45% of our self-imposed mandate, of the commitments we set out to the citizens in 2023. At the time, there were many wise analysts and parliamentary groups, the usual ones, who said that the government would not last even 12 months and that it was necessary to wait until, constitutionally, after 12 months, to call an election. Well, it's been two years now. And then there will be the third and then there will be the fourth and then there will be an election. And some will continue with their usual noise of an early election and others will continue trying to move forwards with the good things for our country.

Well, have a good holiday and I hope you can rest and that current affairs will let us rest as well.

Thank you.

(Transcript edited by the State Secretariat for Communication)