Pedro Sánchez defends the Government's work in the areas of housing, inequality and employment

Lower House of Parliament, Madrid

The President of the Government of Spain, Pedro Sánchez, speaks during the Government control session in the Lower House of Parliament (Pool Congreso)

The President of the Government of Spain, Pedro Sánchez, has defended in the control session in the Lower House of Parliament the work carried out by the Executive to address the main concerns of Spanish citizens, which he identified as being in the areas of housing, inequality and employment.

In his response to the deputy of the Republican Parliamentary Group Gabriel Rufián, Pedro Sánchez assured that the government has been dealing with these three issues for the last seven years.

With regard to the housing problem, the President underlined the positive results since the implementation of the Housing Law in Catalonia: "The first Housing Law in the history of democracy in our country is working because it has reduced rent prices in stressed areas by an average of 3%, and particularly in Barcelona, by more than 6%", explained Pedro Sánchez, who recalled that this fall has been achieved without reducing supply and he once again called for the application of the new law in all the autonomous communities.

The President of the Government of Spain, Pedro Sánchez, upon his arrival at the Chamber | Pool Congreso

Job creation, reducing inequality and increasing the defence budget

In the social and employment spheres, the President highlighted the creation of more than one and a half million jobs following the approval of the labour reform and assured that the commitment to strengthening the pillars of the welfare state has brought inequality to "historic lows" in Spain.

In his response to Alberto Núñez Feijóo, the head of the Executive pointed out that, in the last seven years, the Government has increased the social budget by 120 billion euros and has increased all the resources allocated to the ecological transition by 30 billion. "And all this", he continued, "with a responsible fiscal policy: we have reduced the public deficit, public debt and we are leading economic growth in Europe and job creation rates".

On this point, Pedro Sánchez pointed out that the Executive has also increased the defence budget by 10 billion euros, an area in which Spain committed itself in 2014 to allocate 2% of Gross Domestic Product and where today, "thanks to the economic policy of this Government", the conditions are in place to "fulfil its commitments".

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

Threats to security and democracy: tariffs and denialism

The President of the Government of Spain responded to the question on immigration from the deputy of the Vox Parliamentary Group Santiago Abascal by defending foreign citizens who "work and contribute to the economic growth of our country" and pointing out the issues that, according to the head of the Executive, constitute real risks to security and democracy.

"What threatens the prosperity of Spain and Europe is not immigration, but tariffs on the countryside and industry. What threatens our country's democracy is not migration, but those techno-oligarchs who go about spreading hatred on social media", remarked the president, who also pointed in this response to climate denialism and the "international far right" that "works from outside to destroy Europe from within".

Non official translation