The PP strives to emphasize that its change in opposition strategy, more proactive and focused on social issues, is free of any ideological burden. With messages addressed to both the hardline wing of the party and the CEOE, the popular parties registered this Tuesday in Congress their Proposal for a Conciliation and Co-responsibility Law. During the presentation of the text, the parliamentary spokesperson, Miguel Tellado, and the deputy secretary of Equality and Conciliation, Ana Alós, have made an effort to make it clear that their proposal “is not an ideological law.” “Our alternative is neither right nor left. It is that of a Government with useful proposals and capable of achieving great agreements that improve people’s quality of life,” Tellado stressed along these lines. With the turn in its confrontational tactics, the PP in turn tries to convey the image that the Executive is “paralyzed”, with a “disguised progressive majority” and that it is only dedicated to “resisting”. “We do not take anyone’s flags, but rather the reins of a country that Sánchez has neglected,” the spokesperson added. In parallel, the first vice president and Minister of Labor, Yolanda Díaz, is fighting with the employers for an agreement to reduce the working day.
The PP had already advanced in recent days a good part of the measures included in the proposal, made official this Tuesday with the registration of its Proposal for a Conciliation and Co-responsibility Law. The text includes free early childhood education from zero to three years, the extension of maternity and paternity leave to 26 weeks—eliminating the obligation to take the first six weeks simultaneously—or the “flexible working day” articulated through “ “a bank of hours to enjoy time in an agreement between companies and workers.”
It was the leader of the party, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, who showed himself last week for the first time in favor of reducing the working day, opening a melon that some members of the party did not like. The president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, rejected after the words of her boss, reducing the number of hours below 40 per week, as Vice President Díaz intends. And on Sunday, former Madrid president Esperanza Aguirre joined the criticism in conversation with EL PAÍS: “I do not believe in the moral superiority of the left, I believe in that of liberalism. “If we don’t win the cultural battle, we won’t win the elections.”
The debate generated within the party and the employers’ association’s rejection of the reduction in working hours sought by Vice President Díaz have been responded to this Tuesday from another side by the general secretary of the PP. Just a couple of hours before registering the bill—during an informative breakfast organized by Nueva Economía Fórum—Cuca Gamarra stressed that her proposal for “labor flexibility” has “nothing to do with what Vice President Díaz is proposing.” . “It is not an imposition of four days, but rather an incentive to incentivize the bank of hours, accompanied by a guarantee of productivity, within the framework of social dialogue and not from the imposition,” he pointed out. The bill does not talk about a four-day work week or reducing the number of hours, but it does introduce this bank of hours “as a tool for labor flexibility” that allows the employee’s working time to be accumulated, after consensus with the businessman.
In any case, the PP is aware of the difficulties for its law to complete the entire parliamentary process and finally prosper, regardless of whether with this proposal and the next one that they finalize in terms of housing they manage to monopolize the focus and change the message. “What we ask of the PSOE is that they do not put it in the Armengol freezer, that they do not mess around parliamentaryly with the procedures to allow the alternative majorities to prosper,” Tellado has warned. “The Cortes are not paralyzed because the majority party in Spain is proposing the answers that the Government is not proposing,” he stressed.
The spokesperson has not addressed the attacks received by the hard wing of his party in the face of Feijóo’s shift towards inspirational policies. keynesian and its attempt to show a more social profile. “If it is a flag of the left, we will see if they support us, we are not like Sánchez,” he expressed in this regard. After registering the proposal, the PP intends to contact the political groups to obtain their support with a view, first, to its consideration in the chamber. And with Junts and PNV as the main objectives of these negotiations.
Regarding the future that awaits the popular proposal, the PSOE spokesperson in Congress, Patxi López, has announced that they will read the measures, but has immediately warned that he will not support “any setback.” “The music sounds like a step backwards, as I said before, with the mandatory nature of paternity and maternity leave,” López said in Congress. From the Moncloa Palace, the minister spokesperson, Pilar Alegría, has asserted that “in matters of social policy” the Popular Party and its leader have “zero credibility.” “I find it ironic to hear Mr. Feijóo talk about conciliation […]. The PP reminds me of that meme, of ‘what you ask for’ and ‘what comes home’. “What happened along the way?” Alegría said ironically at a press conference after the Council of Ministers.
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