Statement by President of the Government in Lower House of Parliament after being sworn in as an MP

Madrid

President of the Government.- Ladies and gentlemen, a very good day to you and thank you very much for attending this press briefing.

As you know, I have just completed the administrative formalities established in the Regulations of the Lower House following my election as an MP on 26 June, as all of the MPs are doing, because it is their procedural obligation to do so.

I wanted to take this opportunity to make some brief comments on the formation of the government which must assuredly be the main goal for the near future.

There are three ideas that I want to make clear: first, we cannot hold fresh elections under any circumstances whatsoever. I believe that it would be ridiculous, after having held elections on 20 December and again on 26 June, to hold elections again in the month of November or December and have the country at a standstill for all this time. Hence, the People's Party will do whatever is in its power to avoid elections being held again and I am absolutely convinced that no-one in their right mind will want to see the Spanish people going back to the ballot box, something I imagine they are already fed up with doing.

Second, I believe that the government should be formed as soon as possible. On 19 July, as you are aware, both Houses of Parliament will be constituted. I believe we must find a way to form a government as soon as possible so that it can start to take decisions, because there are many important issues ahead of us.

We have spent 200 days now as an acting government, since 21 December last year, and furthermore, before that, we were undergoing an election campaign, which lasted for almost two months, and hence, since last summer, virtually no draft bill has been put before Parliament, because it made no sense to do that. So, it has been a year now, and there are many issues pending and no draft bill has been put before Parliament.

So, the first idea is not to hold fresh elections; the second idea is to form a government as soon as possible, and the third idea is for the government that is formed to be as stable as possible because it is not a case of only holding a vote of confidence and for Spain to have a government, but rather, it is a case of having a government that can govern, as you will all appreciate.

Aside from that, I wanted to make another two or three observations in addition to the three I have just made. My first observation is that it is also pressing to form a government because in August we will have to approve the ceilings on government spending, regional spending and local authority spending.

Without these ceilings and without approving another path for the public deficit the budget cannot be drawn up in a reasonable and normal manner. The government needs to approve this in August, then a meeting must be held of the Fiscal and Financial Policy Council, also in August; then a meeting of the National Local Authority Committee, and then, the ceiling on spending must be approved, both by the Upper and Lower Houses of Parliament so that, subsequently, following its approval, the regional governments can present their respective budgets in the regional parliaments, debate them and approve them, as the case may be, and also the government, which must approve the budget on 23 September to present it to the Lower House of Parliament, debate it and approve it before December this year.

I believe it is very important for the budget to be approved in a timely fashion. Thanks to the fact that the budget for 2016 was approved in due time and form, things have gone reasonably well this year and the public authorities were able to operate normally, but, I repeat, this is a key issue, because we are not just talking about the State budget, but also the budgets of the regional governments.

Secondly, it is also urgent to form a government as soon as possible because there are many issues related to our membership of the European Union that require decisions to be taken. Just think, we have spent the last year, as I said before, without presenting draft bills to Parliament, there are many EU directives that must be approved and this needs to be done as soon as possible. We must also approve, as soon as possible, the new path of the public deficit and we have all the fallout from the 'Brexit', which will require negotiations that will obviously be complex because we must defend European interests whilst also defending Spanish interests. These negotiations require unanimity. And then there are other issues in Europe, such as the single energy market and the digital single market, which are currently being debated and are urgent.

Hence, this obliges us to have a government that operates in a normal manner formed as soon as possible.

I would remind you, firstly, of the obligation on the matter of the budget; secondly, of European issues, and thirdly, I believe that the government that is formed must be stable or, at least, be reasonably stable because, it is obviously not possible or would make no sense that just a short time after a vote of confidence being held to not be able to approve the budget because this would clearly be extremely prejudicial to Spain's credit overseas and to our own economy.

I believe that at this time the growth and job creation figures are good. You are aware that the figures for the month of June and the figures for the month of May were also good. In the first six months of this year, 450,000 people have started contributing to the Social Security system; that means 450,000 people have found a job in half a year. The economic growth figures will be above the 2,7% forecasted by the Government. Hence, I believe that we have a wonderful opportunity to continue growing and creating jobs which, in the end, is what should be important for us and what is really important for everyone. In other words, if the economy is going well, it would be a shame if, as a result of those of us who were elected on 26 June being unable to form a government, things started to get complicated.

There are also certain other events, such as the 'Brexit'; as yet we are unaware of the influence it may have together with certain other events that may generate concern in some parts of Europe, and in such a situation it is very important for Spain, which can now receive financing, which has a reasonable risk premium, which is suffering in the stock markets, as others are, to be prejudiced by the 'Brexit'… But, if we are able to have a strong economy, with growth and which generates confidence, we are going to be able to tackle things much better and continue creating jobs.

Q.- If the Socialist Party maintains its "no" stance, what else can be done to avoid holding fresh elections?

Can you specify for us when you are going to meet up with Mr Sánchez and with Mr Rivera?

President of the Government.- I am going to meet up with everyone, as you have seen. So, we are going to do the following: firstly, I am going to meet up with everyone who wants to meet up with me; secondly, I am going to meet up wherever they want, the day they want and at the time they want. I am going to meet up with everyone and then the rest is up to them; I don't have the slightest problem with that. Finally, the meetings can be public or private, as they wish.

Q.- As regards the first part of the question, if they maintain their "no" stance, how can fresh elections be avoided?

President of the Government.- I am not going to go into detail at this time. Mr Sánchez has not told me what his position is yet but what I will try to do is ensure that we are able to form a government and respect the wishes of the Spanish people, but I am not going to go into detail at this time.

I don't know what Mr Sánchez' position is, nor do I know whether this is final or not, and I don't know this because I have not yet had the chance to speak with him face-to-face, Hence, I am not going to go into any…

Q.- (Inaudible)

President of the Government.- I am not going to go into procedural detail because I believe that it doesn't lead anywhere. What is important is that we are going to speak, as is our obligation, with everyone; we have already spoken with some parties.

Q.- President of the Government, I wanted to ask you about the article by Felipe González in today's edition of "El País", in which he asks the PSOE to allow the PP to govern.

I then wanted to ask you if you have anything to say or would like to make any self-criticism, after having become aware of the report on the war in Iraq…

President of the Government.- I have read the article by former President of the Government González. Logically, this is an opinion, a very well qualified opinion because of who he is. I obviously agree with some things he said and I will tell you which things: firstly, that there cannot be a repeat of the elections; secondly, that this must be resolved swiftly, and thirdly, that the government must have a minimum level of stability, which are exactly the same as the three things I mentioned at the beginning. But I am not going to go into the rest of the details, because this is neither the time nor the place.

As regards the report, I have not read it. I haven't had time. I saw a little on the television this morning, what Blair said; so, when I read it… We are talking about something that happened 13 years ago. This is an issue that has been debated here in Parliament on many occasions, there was even an investigation commission set up; not exactly on this issue but, in the end, this appeared in the investigation commission at the start of 2004. Hence, that happened 13 years ago and when I read it we will go into more detail.

Q.- Do you intend to stand for a vote of confidence even if the Socialist Party does not say "yes"?

President of the Government.- Firstly, I am not a candidate to stand for a vote of confidence, and nor is anyone else. The King appoints the candidate for the vote of confidence. Hence, I will give the King, in the event that this happens, my opinion but I don't think it is right to speculate on this. But, I repeat, I believe that we must also make an effort to be sensible and, quite frankly, to use our common sense. It wouldn't be right, in all honesty, for us to waste the whole of the summer. It would be ridiculous, firstly, from a purely logical perspective; we have already spent 200 days as an acting government and I don't know what we can sort out in August that we cannot sort out in what is left of July. We must present the budget, and not only the budget of the Government of Spain, but also the respective budgets of all the regional governments. Hence, we cannot afford to waste more time. I repeat, time is of the essence.

Let me reiterate what I said at the beginning: holding fresh elections is ridiculous, and moreover, this would greatly affect the credit of our country and the confidence we generate in the economic and social agents in Spain and outside Spain; secondly, since we are not going to hold the elections again, let's do things quickly, which I don't believe is very hard to do, and finally, let's look for ways to generate a minimum level of stability, because we cannot live without a budget, that makes no sense at all.

Thank you very much.