Pedro Sánchez claims that government's aim is to have 70% of population vaccinated by end of summer

Upper House of Parliament, Madrid

During his participation in the government control session in the Upper House, the President of the Government argued that the regional governments are applying the Vaccination Strategy adopted by the government with "absolute fairness", in "record time" and with an extraordinary rollout".

Pedro Sánchez argued that the regional governments have administered 3.6 million vaccines throughout the country, with some 1.2 million having now received the two doses. Spain is currently the fourth-ranked country in the European Union and the sixth-ranked in the world in terms of units administered per 100 citizens.

The President of the Government stressed that "work is being done tirelessly to ensure that by the end of the first half of 2021 close to 20 million people are vaccinated" and that the target of vaccinating 70% of the Spanish population by the end of summer is met.

The vaccination order, added Pedro Sánchez, is "well-defined in the strategy designed and approved with the agreement of all the public authorities involved", and prioritises the most vulnerable groups and those with the greatest risk of exposure and transmission.

The President of the Government also backed the European centralised procurement of vaccines, which he considers to have been "spot on", and conveyed a message of pride in Spanish science and companies, which are bottling vaccines and heading up some "promising trials".

This was the response offered by Pedro Sánchez to the Member of the Upper House for the Ciudadanos Parliamentary Group, who enquired after the government's vaccination plan.

The President of the Government also expressed his sadness and anger that political leaders from all parties have taken advantage of their position to receive early vaccination. "I believe "this is a much distorted vision of what politics represent".

Health, employment and social protection - the government's priorities

Pedro Sánchez claimed that he feels "satisfied" with the functioning of the first coalition government in our democracy and that, although the two parties that make it up - the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party and Unidas Podemos - are different parties, they are more united than divided. Specifically, Spain's priorities for the next three years will be health, jobs and social protection.

Pedro Sánchez, in response to the Member of the Upper House for the People's Parliamentary Group, Javier Maroto, added that the government not only needs to negotiate between the coalition partners but must also, since it does not have an absolute majority in the Lower House, negotiate with other parliamentary forces. "That is why we have appealed, during the health, economic and social emergency, and over the course of this legislature, for unity, because unity saves lives, companies and jobs".

The National Budget for 2021, stated Pedro Sánchez, was made possible thanks to unity, after being blocked for two years. And consensus has also been key for the 140 billion euros to be allocated to the economic recovery and transformation by the EU. Thanks to negotiations, he continued, trade unions and business organisations have sat down at the same table to protect workers and maintain the productive fabric through Temporary Lay-off Plans (Spanish acronym: ERTEs), benefits to the self-employed and Official Credit Institute loans to companies.

Dialogue in Catalonia

The President of the Government stressed to Sara Vilà, Member of the Upper House for Catalunya En Comú Podem in the Confederal Left Parliamentary Group, that the Government of Spain will respect the legitimacy of the Regional Government of Catalonia that is appointed from the negotiations following the regional elections on 14 February in Catalonia, and will always offer to engage in dialogue.

However, the potential rerun of a regional government pact between ERC and Junts per Catalunya, would be, in the opinion of Pedro Sánchez, unreasonable because it has already been seen to "fail". The President of the Government considered that Catalan society voted through the ballot box for a roadmap of rapprochement and progressive policies to provide a left-wing solution to the health, economic and social crisis and, to this end, stated that the best possible regional government would be a coalition between the PSC and Catalunya En Comú Podem.

Pedro Sánchez acknowledged that this would be a minority government but added that "this is also the case of the Government of Spain" and wondered "why this could not be a formula that we could export to politics in Catalonia".

Non official translation