Mariano Rajoy associates improved pensions and social spending with policies to create jobs

Upper House of Parliament, Madrid

During his speech at the first government control session of the new legislature, Mariano Rajoy, in response to a question from the Member of the Upper House for the parliamentary group Unidos Podemos-En Comú Podem-En Marea, Ramón María Espinar, stated that guaranteeing pensions is "the most important challenge facing us at this time".

To achieve this, he argued, it is fundamental to implement an economic policy focused on creating jobs and working at the Social Dialogue Board with trade unions and business leaders and at the Toledo Pact Commission, and indeed this work has already begun, with the aim of carrying out the reforms necessary to guarantee the public pension system.

Mariano Rajoy underlined that National Insurance contributions are what pay for pensions, and hence it is necessary "to undertake an economic policy that creates jobs". In this regard, he recalled that when he came to power, "for each person that joined the system to receive a pension, three people lost their job. The opposite is now true: for each person that joins the pension system, six more people start a new job".

He also pointed out that 26.7% of all public spending is allocated to paying pensions and the forecast is for this figure to rise in the future, among other reasons, due to the high life expectancy of the Spanish people. For this reason, Mariano Rajoy invited all the parliamentary groups to collaborate on guaranteeing the system.

Employment and social spending

Pool Moncloa/Diego CrespoThe President of the Government also associated social spending with a policy that creates jobs to thus ensure increased public resources. "Without economic resources, there can be as much good will as you want, which is important, but we will never manage to achieve our goal", he responded to the Spokesperson for the Socialist parliamentary group, Vicente Álvarez Areces.

Mariano Rajoy recalled that the crisis meant the loss of 3.5 million jobs in Spain and a fall in State revenue of 70 billion euros. Despite this critical situation, he added, Spain managed to maintain its economic sovereignty, started to create jobs, tax collection grew, the risk premium ceased to be a concern and "the key features of our Welfare State" were maintained.

The President of the Government advocated continuing with those policies that generate jobs during this term of office because each person in work consumes, makes NI contributions and pays taxes, "and all of this ensures that we can improve our fundamental public services and attend to the most needy".

Mariano Rajoy declared that the people of Spain are proud of the Welfare State they have built: social spending represents 63.5% of the total, more than a quarter goes on pensions and another 25% on education and healthcare, and each month 14 million people receive a State benefit.

He also pointed out, that in the case of Spain, the indices of poverty published by Eurostat reflect a fall from 7.1 to 6.4. "This must be improved upon and more things need to be done, but it is very difficult to find a country with a level of social spending like ours", said Mariano Rajoy, who invited all the parties to sit down together to "take more effective decisions for people as a whole".

Dialogue on Catalonia within the law

Pool Moncloa/Diego CrespoAs regards whether the courts are the right place for ending the independence process in Catalonia, a question raised by the Spokesperson for the parliamentary group Esquerra Republicana, Santiago Vidal, the President of the Government stressed that no-one in Spain goes to court because of their ideas and that justice is independent.

Justice acts, he argued, when someone breaks the law, "whoever they may be" because "the law is imposed on us all and the justice system guarantees that the law is upheld". This obligation, he added, is greater still in the case of the representatives of national sovereignty. If the law is not respected, Spain ceases to be a democratic State under the rule of law, argued Mariano Rajoy.

The President of the Government reiterated his willingness to debate policy and dialogue, but always within a legal framework. "What I cannot accept is that someone says to me that they are going to hold a referendum that is agreed on and legal, but that if it is not agreed on and legal, then they are going to hold it anyway. Because that is a contract of adhesion and that is an absolutely anti-democratic imposition, which is against the law and against any principle of the separation of powers", he declared.