Pedro Sánchez: "The Government's intention is to immediately raise the minimum wage in the remainder of the year and to continue to make progress on the commitment to reach 60% of the average wage by 2023"

Casa de América, Madrid

The head of the Executive, Pedro Sánchez, announced today that "the Government's intention is to immediately raise the minimum wage in the remainder of the year and to continue to make progress on the electoral commitment to reach 60% of the average wage by 2023, which is what the European Council's Social Rights Charter sets for us". This he said at a conference at the Casa de América, with which he opened the political year, and which was attended by a hundred representatives of civil society, business, culture and social agents, as well as a large representation of members of the Government.

Sánchez stressed that the Executive, civil society and the social partners are called upon to carry out two fundamental tasks in this new political year: "The first is to consolidate the economic recovery and the second is to ensure that this recovery reaches the pockets of all Spaniards in the form of more jobs, better salaries and decent pensions". Because "there will be no economic recovery if it is not a fair recovery, if it does not reach all of society, if it does not spread to each and every town and village in Spain. No one can be left behind," he remarked.

Within this objective, he has framed the intention to address the immediate increase in the minimum wage and the agreement on pensions agreed with the social partners, and approved in the Council of Ministers, "where we commit ourselves by law to revaluing pensions in line with CPI". On this point, Sánchez has asked for the support of all the political groups in Congress to move forwards with this pension reform.

"Between all of us, Government, Parliament and social partners, we must do everything possible to ensure that this recovery is as fair as possible", he remarked.

On the other hand, the President of the Government of Spain also took advantage of his speech to announce that the Government is already working on the new State Budget for 2022. "This budget is going to be consolidate the fair economic recovery and which we will present between the end of September and the beginning of October", he pointed out.

Vaccination success, a lesson in our best patriotism

Pool Moncloa / Borja Puig de la Bellacasa

During the conference, Sánchez pointed out that our country is emerging from the "ordeal" of the pandemic and "is much better off than it was a year ago", thanks largely to vaccinations and the good work of our health professionals, and "we can look to the future with confidence and hope".

For this reason, he pointed out that the new Government's objective for this new stage of the legislature can be summed up in three aims: "continue to vaccinate to protect the population as a whole; promote a recovery that is as fair as possible, i.e. that reaches all men and women in our country, especially the most vulnerable; and modernise our economy and our social fabric thanks to European funds".

With regard to vaccinations, the head of the Executive said that "this week, as I promised at the beginning of the year, 70% of the population will be fully vaccinated". In fact, more than 90% of the population over 40 years of age will be fully vaccinated, demonstrating the "success of the vaccination strategy".

"In a country like ours, which so often does not recognise its merits, the success of the vaccination is a lesson in patriotism at its best," Sanchez said. A patriotism that "also shows solidarity", he said, "because Spain is not only getting vaccinated, but is helping other countries get vaccinated", as we have donated more than six million doses to Latin America.

He also recalled that, in a few months, Spain will have its own vaccine, demonstrating the strength of Spanish Science and Research and also the success of the public-private partnership that the Government and social agents have opened up in this difficult health, economic and social emergency.

Recovery accelerates as vaccination progresses

The President of the Government of Spain also stressed that "as the vaccination advances, recovery accelerates", as demonstrated by all the economic indicators, and recalled that the forecasts of all the organisations "place Spain as one of the economies that is going to grow the most and with the greatest vigour over the next few years". He pointed out that GDP has recovered by almost 20% in 2021, that there are only 74,000 people covered by an ERTE and that our labour market is breaking records in terms of social security members and that the number of contributors is already higher than in the pre-pandemic period.

Sánchez also acknowledged that, both in the United States and in the eurozone, the recovery is accompanied by rising prices, but he said he was in favour of "continuing with the stimuli to consolidate the recovery and tackle the green and digital modernisation that the European economy - and therefore the Spanish economy - needs".

In his opinion, the start of this recovery has been possible thanks to the unity of action and loyalty shown by all institutional, social and civil actors: to the unity of the EU, with European funds; to the unity of all Governments of all political persuasions in Spain, and thanks to the social dialogue and the role played by trade unions and employers, which has enabled 11 agreements to be reached.

The Executive will continue to act until the energy price rises are solved

During his speech, Pedro Sánchez addressed the complex situation of the energy sector and the evolution of the wholesale market, pointing out that "the Government is aware of the social concern" over this issue and for this reason "it has acted, acts and will continue to act until the rise in energy prices is resolved".

Pool Moncloa / Borja Puig de la Bellacasa

He recalled that the Government has already acted by lowering VAT from 21% to 10%; suspending the 7% tax on the value of electricity production; extending the Discount Rate and approving the Heating Discount Rate to cover the most vulnerable groups (more than 1,100,000 beneficiaries).

In addition, the Government is acting with the parliamentary process of the Law on the National Fund for the Sustainability of the Electricity System and the Law to act on the remuneration of CO2 not emitted from the electricity market, for which Sánchez has called for "rapid parliamentary processing and majority approval". It has also acted with energy auctions for new renewable energy capacity (two auctions in 2021 for a total of more than 6,000 MW) and with direct aid for self-consumption, energy efficiency and rehabilitation and electric mobility worth more than 4 billion euros.

"We will continue to act, always within the European regulatory framework, establishing conditions to reduce the volatility of the regulated tariff, known as the Voluntary Price for the Small Consumer (PVPC), and also promoting a necessary debate in Europe on the adaptation of market rules to a new context of energy transition and increased penetration of renewable energies," he said.

The president also welcomed the constitution in Congress of a Parliamentary Study Commission on the energy sector, to which the parliamentary groups supporting the Government are involved, where they will listen to the different proposals put forwards by the political groups and different actors. "Listening, debating, agreeing and acting are four verbs to which the Executive feels totally and absolutely committed," he added.

A Government of action that will continue with its reformist agenda

After 603 days since the Government was formed and approximately 850 days of the legislature remaining, Pedro Sánchez has insisted that "the Government will continue with its reformist agenda. We will not stop. We are going to continue to move Spain forwards", because "this is a government of action". This is reflected in the Annual Regulatory Assessment Report for the 2020 Annual Regulatory Plan, as well as the Annual Regulatory Plan for 2021, approved yesterday by the Council of Ministers.

The report shows 84% compliance with the measures envisaged in the 2020 Plan (49% of the planned measures have already been approved and 35% are in the pipeline). The plan for 2021 includes 146 initiatives: 6 organic laws; 27 ordinary laws and 113 royal decrees, as well as a 3-year forecast, consistent with budgetary planning and the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan.

Renewal of constitutional bodies

Pool Moncloa / Borja Puig de la Bellacasa

The President of the Government of Spain also spoke of the need for "all of us to promote the regeneration of our institutions". In this sense, he considered that "it is not acceptable that institutions such as the government of judges have not been renewed for a thousand days and that the renewal of the Constitutional Court, the Ombudsman or the Court of Auditors remains blocked".

No political grouping," he said, referring to the PP, "has the right to fail to fulfil its constitutional obligations, to place itself outside the Constitution, because this undermines the prestige of our democracy and our constitutional architecture at a time when citizens most need strong and solid institutions".

In his opinion, "short-circuiting the functioning of constitutional bodies is a breach of loyalty to the coexistence pact represented by our Constitution" and he therefore called on the opposition "to return to the constitutional consensus and fulfil its constitutional obligations".

Non official translation