Pedro Sánchez sets out his Government's six priorities for action: "Competitiveness, labour dignity, welfare state, housing, equality and peace"

Sánchez also stressed that Spain has "a clean government that was born six years ago as a response to corruption, territorial fracture and cuts to the Welfare State" and that "it has overcome five years of judicial deadlock, with an agreed renewal of the General Council of the Judiciary and the election of the first female president of the Supreme Court". He went on to recall that "Spain today has a government in Catalonia that works for the union of the peoples of Spain" and "has led one of the most important phases of modernisation, growth and employment in its recent history". "A success story for the country," he remarked.

The head of the Executive used the opening ceremony of the political year at the Cervantes Institute in Madrid to outline the six priorities for the progressive government's seventh year in office. The first of these is economic competitiveness, which means "continuing to promote a change in the production model", he said. In this regard, he stressed that, in this four-month period, "we will be deploying 3.1 billion euros in loans from European funds to reindustrialise Spain"; "we will be setting up the "new Spanish Productivity Council" and we will be launching "twelve new university degrees and vocational training modules", to improve the skills of our workers in areas such as renewable energies, digital technologies and health.

As a second priority, he pointed to the strengthening of the welfare state, which involves "safeguarding and expanding rights" and "modernising and reinforcing public services".

Social PGE, more progressive taxation and new regional funding system

The President of the Government of Spain, Pedro Sánchez, during his speech at the opening ceremony of the political year held at the Cervantes Institute | Pool Moncloa / Fernando Calvo

Sánchez explained that his government champions "a model of social justice that ensures real equality and protects our welfare state" and therefore announced that in this new political year they will be working to secure the "approval of ambitious social PGEs", which consolidate and expand on the public investment that we have been making in recent years. He also announced that next Tuesday, the Council of Ministers will once again approve the spending ceiling, to be submitted to Parliament.

On the other hand, he assured that the Executive will continue moving towards a "more progressive taxation", with taxes that fall more heavily on those who have the most and guide the productive model, and will be promoting the creation of a "system of regional financing that is fairer, that reduces territorial differences, that takes into account the singularities of each of the territories and that guarantees the sufficiency of public spending and demands co-responsibility from the regional governments".

Housing, the central theme of the next Conference of Presidents

The president pointed out that the third priority of the government's action will be housing, which is "the biggest problem facing young people and many families". In this respect, he pointed out that in recent years the foundations of the new public intervention have been laid with the first Housing Law of our democracy and by mobilising or initiating the construction of 80,000 homes for affordable rent, among other measures.

He said that in the coming months "we will be promoting new measures aimed at expanding the public housing stock, fighting speculation, establishing a better balance between tourist activity and the welfare of residents, and ensuring that housing is a right for everyone and not the business of a few".

He also confirmed that housing will be the subject of debate and the main purpose of the Conference of Presidents to be held in Cantabria.

Dignity at work, the fight against inequality and peace

The President of the Government of Spain, Pedro Sánchez, during his speech at the opening ceremony of the political year held at the Cervantes Institute | Pool Moncloa / Borja Puig de la Bellacasa

Labour dignity will be the fourth priority of the Executive in this new political year, and Sánchez has therefore guaranteed that they will continue to negotiate with employers and trade unions until the working day is reduced to 37.5 hours, "so that all Spaniards work to live, and not live to work"; they will adapt the state regulation of the minimum wage to the standards set by the European directive, and they will approve a Statute for Scholarship Holders.

The fifth priority will be to continue fighting inequality in all its forms, explained the head of the Executive, who announced that, in the coming months, "we will be renewing the State Pact against Gender Violence; we will be implementing new actions aimed at limiting the disproportionate privileges of certain elites and taxing those who already have enough money in the bank to live a hundred lives".

Finally, the Government's sixth priority will be peace in our eastern and southern neighbourhood. In this area, Pedro Sánchez remarked that we will continue to help Ukraine in its war against Putin, "with more than a billion euros in material and favourable votes in Brussels" and we will continue to support the people of Gaza, "supporting UNRWA, pressuring Netanyahu in the International Criminal Court, the United Nations and the European Union, and strengthening our ties with the Palestinian state". In fact, the President has announced that before the end of the year we will hold the first bilateral Spain-Palestine Summit.

On migration, he said that "we will update our Africa Plan, with better resources, and we will be developing agreements on circular migration. "In the face of the mass deportations, sending out frigates that some propose, the progressive coalition government will defend a humanist migration policy that respects international humanitarian law," he added.

The Government is here for the long haul: we'll make the most of the time

Before ending his speech, Pedro Sánchez recalled that "for the first time in many years, Spain will not face elections in the short term. We have three years until the general elections and almost two years without regional elections. This is a time of new developments which we will take forward with those who are willing to help.

In this regard, he underscored the Executive's will to "continue agreeing" and announced that in the coming weeks he will bilaterally call each of the regional presidents to a working meeting at La Moncloa.

He also expressed his conviction that "this is a government for the long haul" and added that "if this government has learnt anything, it is to sail with the wind against it". "We will make the most of the time," he concluded.

Non official translation