Sánchez stresses the strength of tourism in Spain and "the Government's clear commitment to job stability and business certainty"

Palma de Mallorca

The Chief Executive has welcomed the good data on tourism activity during the first six months of 2022. "More than 30 million foreign tourists have visited our country this year and this means that we have a strong and thriving tourism sector; if the data continue like this, we will recover the tourism data from before the pandemic," he said.

"The Government of Spain is not going to get complacent or pessimistic", Sánchez stressed, referring to the economic data on employment and tourism in Spain. In this respect, the President underlined the fundamental role of the labour reform in consolidating the Spanish Government's commitment to stable employment. "Since the labour reform was approved, we have 4 million more permanent contracts and 11 million in total, our historical maximum", he pointed out.

Commitment to the protection of the country's social majority

Pedro Sánchez highlighted the efforts of the Executive to contain inflation and conveyed to the monarch the Government's firm commitment and determination to alleviate the effects of the war on the economy of Spanish families and companies. "We are putting in place measures to cushion the economic and social effects of inflation and always with the aim of defending the middle and working classes," he remarked.

The President launched a message of unity and social solidarity vis-à-vis the war. To this effect, Sánchez called on "all parties and public administrations to flee from any selfish, unilateral and unsupportive behaviour, which does not represent Spain's Europeanist commitment".

The Chief Executive has appealed to individual and collective responsibility to deal with the economic consequences of the war in Ukraine. "Europe is asking us to make the effort to confront Putin's energy blackmail and Spain supports this collective effort," he said.

Spanish vaccine against COVID-19

The President of the Government of Spain informed of the joint purchase, by the European Commission and 14 EU member states, of Hipra's Spanish vaccine against COVID-19. "This demonstrates the strength of innovation and the pharmaceutical industry in Spain, as well as the commitment to public-private collaboration, which is now bearing fruit," he said.

"This vaccine also makes Spain a reference by providing our own solution to protect the world's population against COVID," said Sánchez, who conveyed a message of caution to maintain all the necessary precautions in the fight against the pandemic.

Support measures for island territories

The Chief Executive reaffirmed the Government's commitment to the island territories and took the opportunity to announce the Executive's decision to grant a 100% discount on recurrent rail transport in the Balearic Islands as of 1 September and, at the same time, to increase the discount on intercity bus transport in the Canary Islands from 30% to 50%.

"With this we are giving a justified measure of relief and protection to all the citizens of the islands who had not been recognised in the package of measures announced by the Government of Spain," said Sánchez.

Non official translation