Pedro Sánchez: "The Government's ambition is to continue to raise the minimum wage"

Lower House of Parliament, Madrid

The President of the Government of Spain, Pedro Sánchez, answers questions during the Government control session (Pool Congreso)

The President of the Government of Spain, Pedro Sánchez, underlined during the control session to the Executive in the Lower House of Parliament that the 61% increase in the Minimum Interprofessional Wage honours the commitment established in the European Social Charter, which sets 60% of the average net salary as the Minimum Interprofessional Wage.

"This has been achieved in the last seven years and the Government of Spain's ambition is to continue increasing the Minimum Interprofessional Wage during this legislature", explained the president, who also insisted that this will be the path to follow if he continues to govern at the end of the current legislature.

In his response to Junts per Catalunya deputy Míriam Nogueras, Pedro Sánchez pointed to the approval of the labour reform as another important initiative in terms of employment, a reform that, according to the president, "has brought stability" and "has reduced precariousness and temporary employment".

Spain, leader in economic growth in Europe

The President of the Government of Spain, Pedro Sánchez, during his speech at the Government control session in the Lower House of Parliament | Pool Congreso

The chief executive once again celebrated the fact that Spain is leading economic growth in Europe in a "complex" international scenario. "Even with much work ahead of us, Spain is on the right track towards full employment, growth and a consolidation of public accounts, with a strengthening of the welfare state", said the president, who linked the current employment rate and the reduction of inequality with the implementation of policies such as the aforementioned Minimum Interprofessional Wage, the Minimum Basic Income, and the revaluation of pensions.

"In 2018, the average salary in our country was €1,700, and today it is €2,100. The average pension was €1,000, and today it is €1,500. In 2018, there were 19 million employed people, and today there are almost 22 million", the president detailed in response to the question posed by the deputy of the Popular Parliamentary Group Alberto Núñez Feijóo.

First results of the housing policy

The President of the Government of Spain, Pedro Sánchez, attends the Government control session in the Lower House of Parliament | Pool Congreso

Asked by Oskar Matute, a member of the Euskal Herria Bildu parliamentary group, about the housing situation, Pedro Sánchez replied that "we are beginning to see some results". Among them, he pointed to the more than 66,000 young people who have government aid to be able to rent, and the increase for "the first time in many years" in housing construction by 16% and rehabilitation by 7%.

"We are probably talking about the main challenge we have in our country in the fight against inequality", the chief executive acknowledged, after referring to the "difficulty, if not impossibility, of many people, especially young people, to access housing".

Pedro Sánchez stressed that the Government is committed to this issue and has deployed a housing policy that rests on three pillars: the incentive to build fundamentally subsidised housing; the promotion of aid for the purchase of housing and guarantees for renting; and intervention to regulate the market through the Housing Law and the creation of a state company for construction by the General State Administration.

"Here we are going to build the fifth pillar of the welfare state", stressed Pedro Sánchez, who demanded the collaboration of all the administrations and recalled the example of the application of the Housing Law in Catalonia, where "it is bringing down the price of rent by between 3 and 5%".

Non official translation