Pedro Sánchez promised this Wednesday morning during his investiture speech that, if he renews his mandate as President of the Government, public transport will be free from January 1 for minors, young people and the unemployed. Also, it will extend the reduction in VAT on food until June next year. Furthermore, the leader of the PSOE has assured that he will raise the average income threshold from 30,000 to 38,000 euros to benefit from the relief measures for mortgages. In the catalog of promises, the still acting President of the Government has announced a legal reform so that civil liability does not prescribe in sexual abuse of minors. The socialist candidate has outlined the measures around eight axes, the main measures of which are the following:
Employment. Reduce the working day to 37.5 hours
Pedro Sánchez has promised that in the current legislature – in which he has assured that he will work to achieve “full employment” – a new Workers’ Statute will see the light of day, which will guarantee by law the revaluation of the Minimum Interprofessional Wage. The idea is that it remains at 60% of the average salary, as determined by the coalition agreement sealed between PSOE and Sumar.
The acting president has also winked at the reduction of the working day: “Spain is one of those countries in which people work to live and do not live to work,” he said in Congress. According to the pact signed with Yolanda Díaz’s coalition, the work week will be cut from 40 to 38.5 hours in 2024 and to 37.5 in 2025. Sánchez has predicted that incentives will be incorporated so that companies allow more flexible schedules and strengthen teleworking.
Purchasing power: free transport and maintaining the VAT reduction
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Sánchez’s main announcement, still without knowing the fine print, involves free public transport (from trains to buses) for minors, young people and the unemployed as of January 1 of next year. He has not given further details on the scope and cost of this measure (up to what age, under what conditions…?), which must be implemented in cooperation with the autonomous communities. In the argument distributed by the PSOE it is said that this reduction is for “all minors and young people and unemployed people.”
The Ministry of Transport explains to EL PAÍS that, at the moment, there is no more information about how it will be carried out. In any case, the measure continues with the path marked by the coalition Government: in September of last year, the Executive began making the Cercanías and Media Distancia trains, which depend on the State, completely free of charge, to encourage public transport and contain the inflation. It applies to all users. In January 2023, it expanded the measure with subsidies for public transport in large cities, which manage communities and city councils, through state subsidies that must be completed by the autonomies, and translate into discounts of 50% to 60% for all users.
Although more is not yet known, a similar formula could be applied to achieve free tickets for minors and the unemployed. Furthermore, some communities, such as Madrid, already have cheaper passes for young people and even completely free passes for retirees, and some cities give discounts to the unemployed on their urban bus passes.
In addition, Pedro Sánchez has announced that he will maintain for six more months, until June 2024, the VAT reduction from 4% to % on basic foodstuffs such as bread, milk, eggs or fruits and vegetables, and from 10 % to 5% for oil and paste. Furthermore, the leader of the PSOE has assured that he will raise the average income threshold from 30,000 to 38,000 euros to benefit from the relief measures for mortgages.
The other star measure to mitigate the impact of the price increase, the tax reduction on electricity and energy supplies, has not, however, been mentioned by the presidential candidate. These discounts should be exhausted at the end of the year, and a possible extension would force it to look for other income measures or reduce spending if the Government wants to meet the deficit objective that it has transferred to Brussels, of 3% of GDP.
Welfare state. Raises the threshold to access mortgage aid
“We are going to continue revaluing pensions in accordance with the CPI,” the socialist leader once again defended in his investiture speech. Sánchez has said that the mandate of the Toledo Pact will be fulfilled and that the Executive will inject some 5,000 million euros each year into the Pension Reserve Fund to try to guarantee the viability of the system. In fiscal policy, he has emphasized an effective minimum tax of 15% in Corporate Tax.
Sánchez has referred to the economic measures that he intends to undertake if he is elected. “Our country has one of the lowest inflation rates in Europe, but that does not mean that the problem has passed,” said the acting president. Sánchez has announced that public transport will be free for minors and the unemployed. The VAT reduction will be extended until June 2024.
Pedro Sánchez has promised new aid to facilitate access to housing, which he has defined as “the biggest problem faced by many citizens, especially young people.” Thus, he has announced that they will increase the rental bonus that was already implemented last legislature, throwing a pinch at the communities governed by the right that have not yet fully developed the aid. “I hope they do it,” he said. In addition, he has promised 183,000 public homes and, as “support for the middle class,” he has announced aid for housing renovation and tax incentives so that owners are encouraged to put them on the rental market. Likewise, he has assured that, if he is inaugurated, he will change the mortgage relief law to raise the income threshold to 38,000 euros to be able to benefit from this aid to pay mortgages, under pressure from successive increases in interest rates to contain the inflation.
Less precisely, and as “support for the middle class”, it has announced aid for housing renovation and tax incentives so that owners are encouraged to put them on the rental market.
Equality. No to the prescription of crimes of child abuse
Sánchez referred during his investiture debate to the report made by the Ombudsman, Ángel Gabilondo, on sexual abuse in the church after the journalistic investigation of this newspaper: “We are going to strengthen the legal framework so that crimes of aggression and sexual abuse are not limited to a specific moment and civil liability does not prescribe,” Sánchez announced. “We are going to create a state fund for the payment of aid and compensation to victims that meets European standards and we are going to urge the Catholic Church to commit to recognizing and compensating all people who unfortunately suffered abuse at the hands of of the clergy,” he added. “Above all, we are going to adopt the necessary measures to guarantee that this aberration is not repeated,” said Sánchez, who also announced the reinforcement of the support and supervision mechanisms for the comprehensive protection law for children and adolescents. by providing them with more resources.
Territorial cohesion. Another financing model
The socialist candidate has highlighted the importance of “reducing differences between provinces and strengthening territorial cohesion.” Sánchez has recounted some of the measures agreed with Sumar in this regard: “We are going to dedicate the bulk of European funds to creating new industries and opportunities outside the large capitals. “We are going to create better infrastructure and railway connections. We are going to guarantee by law access to basic public services in a radius of less than 30 minutes.”
He has also announced “a new regional financing model that guarantees the economic resources of the autonomous communities, based on the principles of equity and financial autonomy and also that of fiscal co-responsibility. Because it is still curious that the autonomous governments of the PP with Vox lower taxes on the richest and then ask the general administration of the State for more economic resources.”
Amnesty. “Advance the reunion agenda”
The candidate for President of the Government has reserved the entire seventh point of his priorities to govern Spain for the next four years to the amnesty for those accused of the processes. He has acknowledged that he does so out of obligation, because of the need for votes and because “the circumstances are what they are,” but then he has reaffirmed that far from attacking and weakening the 1978 Constitution with this measure of grace, what he intends is to strengthen its meaning and validity. Sánchez understands that now the amnesty can be a “step forward” to reunite with Catalonia and the Catalan separatists within the current legal framework. The candidate recalled similar pardons from previous PP governments and stressed that the amnesty will not only benefit politicians, but also hundreds of citizens and police officers. mossos who were dragged by the management that was carried out in 2017 of the entire processes. This entire passage was intended to highlight that the PP and also Vox are not against the amnesty and against this investiture, but rather they are actually questioning the legitimacy of a PSOE Government, as they have done in the past. In the socialist argument, this point, which only includes the amnesty, is titled like this: “Advance the reunion agenda.” And he maintains that it is “perfectly legal and in accordance with the Constitution.”
Europe
In the last of the axes, Pedro Sánchez referred to the European Union and the enlargement to new countries, crucial decisions. Spain will be among the countries that lead these processes, the candidate has promised.
Ecological transition
Sánchez’s speech in this regard has focused on promoting the deployment of renewable energies, reestablishing the National Energy Commission (CNE) and the fight against the threat of drought.
All the announcements of the socialist candidate on energy matters were already included in the government agreement reached by PSOE and Sumar at the end of October or in the draft of the National Energy and Climate Plan (PNIEC) published shortly before the general elections of 23 July. More renewables, accompanied by plans to avoid the growing social opposition against some photovoltaic and, above all, wind projects. Continuation of the extraordinary tax on energy companies. And, above all, the confirmation that the current National Markets and Competition Commission (the Spanish super regulator) will split in two to provide the energy branch with its own entity. Thus, we return to the model that the Government of Mariano Rajoy (PP) abolished in 2013 at the request of Brussels and which was then sold as an effective way to save almost 30 million euros to the public coffers.
With the creation of the CNE there will once again be an independent regulator that will keep an eye on energy companies. The movement is important at the moment when it arrives, after a term, the recently concluded one, in which the high prices of gas, electricity and fuel have pilloried the big names in the sector, who have reaped — and continue to reap historically high profits. “We are satisfied, because with the focus on energy, it will have a specialization that will give the best response to protect citizens and investments,” sources from the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge assess.
With information from Laura Delle Femmine, Ignacio Fariza, Miguel Ángel Medina, José Manuel Abad Liñán and Jorge A. Rodríguez.
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