The PSOE spokesperson in Congress, Patxi López, has thrown down the gauntlet to Pedro Sánchez, warning of the “terrifying result” of the German far-right in the regional elections on Sunday in Saxony-Anhalt: “We are more necessary than ever, we are their only brake. Only we remain to stop them, there is no one else with enough strength and conviction to stop them.” At the same time, almost all polls insist daily on forecasting the electoral victory of the Popular Party and the far-right Vox in Spain, as already predicted by the last regional election cycle, but Patxi López has assured that the socialists “have the best captain” to try to stop this right-wing wave sweeping Europe and the world, and to try to reverse the poll forecasts.
And the aforementioned “captain,” Pedro Sánchez, has taken up the challenge to warn that “what we saw yesterday in Saxony is a warning and a confirmation.” “The warning that the ultra threat, largely thanks to the surrender of the traditional right, is gaining ground in Europe and the world. And also the confirmation that a progressive coalition government like the Spanish one is more necessary than ever. The world is watching us. We are the vanguard of progress against the reactionaries,” said the Prime Minister, who on Monday kicked off the new political season with a speech of encouragement and support before the socialist interparliamentary meeting gathered in Congress already in the final stretch of this turbulent legislature.
The Ceuta crisis
“The firmness of the State is not incompatible with human dignity. Those entitled to asylum will have it. And those who are not, will be returned”
Sánchez, however, began his speech by setting the urgency of resolving the Ceuta migration crisis as his “main priority.” With three objectives. The first is “to assist the people of Ceuta with all the State’s resources to restore normality to the city as soon as possible,” after the last Council of Ministers approved a new economic relaunch plan endowed with 309 million euros. The second is “to respond to the humanitarian crisis.” “The firmness of the State is not incompatible with human dignity. Those entitled to asylum will have it in Spain, as ethics and international law require. And those who are not, will be returned,” he assured.
And the third is “to understand what happened and ensure it does not happen again.” He thus indicated that the Government will again increase investment in strengthening the borders of the autonomous city. “Ceuta will regain normality and come out stronger,” he assured. “But, unfortunately, once again, we will not be able to count on this opposition that has made it normal to exploit every crisis to spread hatred,” he denounced, referring to the PP and Vox.
The head of the Executive thus placed the political struggle unleashed by the PP and Vox over the management of the Ceuta crisis and migration policy within their clash with other political leaders worldwide, from the American Donald Trump to the Italian Giorgia Meloni. “You must have seen that the entire far-right international is attacking Spain, in Europe and across the Atlantic. There must be a reason,” he told socialist deputies and senators. “After eight years of progressive government, Spain is proof that the opposite of hatred is our progress. And every policy approved in the General Courts is a right won against the ultras. That’s how we’ve been for eight years, and next year, another four more years,” Sánchez assured, hoping to renew his mandate after the 2027 general elections. An election date the opposition demands daily, but Sánchez still has not set a date.
“The only calendar that matters,” Sánchez said, “is to keep approving progressive laws while the legislature lasts.” In these three years, he recalled, he has already managed to pass 74 legislative initiatives, “against all odds” of the opposition, and “against the cross vetoes” among the investiture allies. “Now we have to go for more, for much more,” he insisted. “It is about consolidating advances with more advances. And about underpinning social achievements with more social achievements. That is how you stop the reactionaries, with more rights and more freedoms. Going out to win, not to draw,” he stressed.
There are still many pending issues left for September, such as the new general state budgets for 2027 or next year’s electoral calendar, while the judicial agenda pressuring the Government and the PSOE again sets the pace, and the August break also did not reduce the decibels of the political scene, as intended in Moncloa, due to the management of the Ceuta migration crisis that remains unresolved. Sánchez reiterated in his speech that he will present the draft of the new public accounts for next year, although still without committing to any date. The president did guarantee that these budgets will have public housing policy “as a great priority,” and that they will combine “the greatest social investment in history” with “fiscal rigor.” “I ask parliamentary groups for a commitment exercise with ordinary people to get these new budgets through,” he demanded.
Sánchez also set as priorities for this new parliamentary session period achieving approval of the new autonomous financing model, debt relief, or facilitating young people’s access to decent housing, against the “attic” he criticized that the Madrid’s Isabel Díaz Ayuso tried to acquire. All this he included in his purpose of strengthening rights and freedoms. “Now, more than ever, with ultra-right coalition regional governments of PP and Vox, we have to be the bulwark of the Spain of freedoms. Either we defend them, or no one will,” he emphasized.
“We know what we are facing: the alliance of a regression between an increasingly ultra right and an increasingly emboldened far-right. An alliance based on three priorities: cutting rights and freedoms, privatizing the welfare state, and fracturing coexistence,” warned the Prime Minister. Against this alternative, Sánchez assured that “we have millions of reasons to keep moving forward: as many as people living in Spain.”
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