Control session

The President affirms that Spain needs political stability to continue to make progress on vaccinations and a fair recovery

2021.5.12

  • x: opens new window
  • Whatsapp: opens new window
  • Linkedin: opens new window
  • Send: opens new window

Lower House of Parliament, Madrid

In the government control session, Pedro Sánchez has pointed out that Spain needs political stability and that the priorities of the Executive are to achieve a fair economic recovery, which "reaches every home and every corner of the country" and to continue to roll out the vaccination strategy against COVID-19. "The state of emergency is the past, we have to look to the future, and the future is herd immunity," he said in his reply to Pablo Casado, a member of the Popular Parliamentary Group.

With regard to vaccinations, the chief executive added that more than 20 million doses were administered in Spain yesterday. "Today, I can guarantee that by the first week of June there will be ten million Spaniards who will have completed the course," he assured. Sánchez also reiterated that the government expects seventy per cent of the Spanish population to be immunised before the end of the summer.

The president said that some indicators already show that "the Spanish economy is on the verge of recovery", including private consumption, electricity consumption, National Insurance contributors and the reactivation of workers affected by the Temporary Redundancy Programmes (ERTE). The government is driving this improvement through social dialogue and the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plans. Sánchez explained that to make the recovery as fair as possible, he is also strengthening the welfare state and protecting workers in sectors whose activity is restricted by the pandemic.

32 months in which to modernise Spain

Congreso de los DiputadosPedro Sánchez insisted that the Government's agenda is "the agenda and the demands of Spanish citizens, wherever they live", starting with overcoming the pandemic, in his reply to Gabriel Rufián, a member of the Republican Parliamentary Group.

The president detailed that there are 98 days left for Spain to reach herd immunity against the current pandemic and affirmed that "the Spanish economy is warming up", so that "we can have a frankly positive second half of the year from the point of view of the recovery".

The Government is waiting for the European Commission to formally approve the Recovery Plan, which includes 212 reforms and investments. "Therefore, 32 months remains of the legislature to modernise our country, to ensure that Spain is not only full of opportunities for our young people, but also to definitively overcome the greatest calamity of the last hundred years of human history".

In relation to the territorial debate, the president advocated that a government should be formed as soon as possible in Catalonia, so that the dialogue "so necessary" for this community and for the country as a whole can resume. Furthermore, he guaranteed that the Executive "will fulfil its roadmap for the reunion of Catalan society and of Catalan society with Spanish society".

Coexistence and pluralism

Congreso de los DiputadosResponding to Santiago Abascal, from the VOX Parliamentary Group, Pedro Sánchez vindicated the spirit of "harmony and coexistence that the Spanish Constitution represented more than forty years ago", as well as the "greatness" of Spanish democracy that allows "everyone to fit" in Parliament.

In his speech, the chief executive also recalled that article 1 of the Constitution includes political pluralism, equality and freedom among the fundamental values of the legal system.

These principles are not compatible with the questioning of sex-based violence, attacks on migrant children and the LGBTI community, or defending the illegalisation of political parties that think differently.

Non official translation