Statements by President of the Government in Upper House before his meeting with People's Parliamentary Group in Upper House

Madrid

President of the Government.- As you know, this is the first meeting I will hold with the parliamentary group of my party, the People Party, in the Upper House in this new legislature. My aim is to work with them in the future. This is a different legislature to all the others we have had in Spain since 1977 because the governing party has always had a majority - either an absolute majority or through agreements with other parties. On this occasion, things are vastly different, since the People's Party only has 137 MPs in the Lower House and hence, this will be a legislature, at least for our part, of dialogue, of many talks, of pacts and of agreements.

There are two priority objectives for this legislature: the first is to bed down the economic recovery; continue with growth, which will stand above 3% this year - the fastest rate anywhere in Europe - and with job creation, which remains the most important challenge for the coming years. Many jobs have been created in Spain between 2014 and 2016, but this is still not enough, because more jobs were lost in the five previous years that at any other time in our past.

Hence, that remains the main national objective. This will also allow us to collect revenue and consolidate our welfare model, our public services, our pension system and aid for those people in the most needy situations.

What we will firstly do in terms of economic affairs is propose the ceiling on spending and budget stability before the two Houses of Parliament. This must be approved before the end of December and then we will be able to present the General State Budget for 2017.

That then is the first main objective; the second main objective is to turn necessity into a virtue and attempt during this legislature to reach major national agreements that will last for a long time on issues that matter to the people. Pensions are fundamental. As you are aware, only this morning the Minister [for Employment] appeared before the Toledo Pact Commission in the Lower House and others will now appear there, and between us all, we must make proposals and reach an agreement to maintain, preserve and improve our pension system for the future. That is one of our main national objectives; together with a pact on gender-based violence on which there is already an agreement in principle, and then, later on, we will have to talk about other issues, such as regional financing, the education pact, etc.

So, I repeat, these are the two main objectives of this legislature on which we will have to talk, try to reach agreements and understandings in order to preserve the rights and interests of the Spanish people.

Q.- President of the Government, are you concerned that the pact in the Basque Country may turn into another claim for the right to self-determination?

President of the Government.- The pact in the Basque Country is a pact between two political parties in relation to the Basque Country, which my party has not signed, principally because it was not invited to and nor has it been involved with this, and tomorrow our spokesperson will give you his opinion on this issue. The only thing I can say is that the priority for me continues to be economic growth, job creation and attending to the needs of people; secondly, it is not good to generate more uncertainty than already exists and finally, that we always operate within the constitutional framework and that is where we want to continue operating in the future.

Q.- President of the Government, will the government raise the ceiling on spending, as mentioned by Ciudadanos?

President of the Government.- Everyone says whatever they want, don't they? To some extent, that is logical. But on this issue everyone says that we must meet the deficit targets, and hence, our European commitments, but that, in turn, we must increase spending and, in turn, lower taxes. It is impossible to do these three things at the same time and at the very least, those of us who have government responsibilities should be aware of that.

We will present the ceiling on spending shortly and the question there, fundamentally, is to meet the deficit targets, and thus our commitments with Europe. That is what generates confidence and credibility and allowed us to enjoy economic growth and job creation. Secondly, we will need to control public spending and thirdly, I have no intention of raising the main taxes, at least, as I said in my election campaign, that is, Personal Income Tax and Value Added Tax.

But, I repeat, we are going to try and reconcile three objectives that are very important, but we cannot do all three things at the same time. Hence, I repeat, we will present the objective of meeting the deficit; I don't want to raise the main taxes that affect our people as a whole; we will fight fraud as effectively as we can and we will continue maintaining policies to control spending because we need to do this and because that is what is leading to economic growth and the creation of jobs in our country, which is the main, and key, objective.

Thank you very much.