“As long as the deceitful opposition can keep maneuvering, we will continue governing until 2027 and for as long as the Spanish people want,” Pedro Sánchez warned. In a climate of total uncertainty amid the flood of judicial cases surrounding the political and family environment of the Prime Minister, and without knowing how far these processes may escalate but also with no expectation that the storm will subside, nothing is better than a good warm bath of youthful socialist militancy to try to catch one’s breath and, at the same time, attempt to inject fighting spirit into troops torn between indignation and discouragement.
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This is what the PSOE leader did this Sunday, at the closing of the 27th federal congress of the Socialist Youth (JSE) which elected Aránzazu Figueroa as its new general secretary, in the auditorium of the UGT headquarters in Madrid. Faced with the harsh blows from the alleged corruption cases of José Luis Ábalos and Santos Cerdán – the last two secretaries of organization of Ferraz –, Sánchez reiterated that “whenever there has been behavior that is not appropriate to what the values and principles of the PSOE represent, we have acted decisively.”
“But against slanders, we will also respond decisively,” the head of the Executive warned, referring to the judicial cases also opened against former president José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, or against his wife and brother, Begoña Gómez and David Sánchez. “We will not allow this deceitful opposition to mix one thing with another to try to bring down this progressive coalition government with their dirty tricks,” he stressed.
Waiting to see how the coming weeks unfold, in which there will be developments in the ongoing judicial cases – and where everything is susceptible to worsening –, including the appearances of Begoña Gómez before Judge Peinado, Zapatero before the National Court, and Sánchez himself before the full Congress, the Prime Minister warned the PP and Vox that “they do not know us,” if they think they will topple the PSOE. “Democratic socialism can stumble, we are a human project,” he admitted. “But we never give up a battle, we get up and move forward,” he assured.
“The one who gets the most votes comes to government, not the one who looks for shortcuts,” the president argues, in response to Aznar’s “off-key high note”
And he warned against José María Aznar’s “let whoever can do it, do it” attitude. “An off-key high note, from a character who has always overestimated himself,” he rebutted. The former president and ex-leader of the PP, he fired, only brought to Spanish politics “corruption, the great lie of 11-M, and involving Spain in the illegal Iraq war.” Sánchez pointed out that Aznar’s lawsuit is “a cry of desperation, frustration, and a deeply anti-democratic proclamation.” “In a parliamentary democracy like Spain’s, the one who comes to government is the one who gets the most votes, not the one who looks for shortcuts,” he stated.
Read more LIVE: Pedro Sánchez speaks at the 27th JSE Congress
Sánchez recalled that this Monday, already June 1st, will mark eight years since the no-confidence motion that brought down Mariano Rajoy and took him to Moncloa. And, despite the enormous pressure he now faces amid the avalanche of judicial cases involving the Government and the PSOE, he demanded more time. “We need time for the great transformations to take root,” he justified. “We do not deny the problems, but the results of this Government cannot be denied,” he claimed, highlighting the eight years of social and economic progress that, in his view, Spain is achieving, “despite the difficulties and problems.”
“This deceitful opposition wants Spain to stop or even go backwards,” he warned. “They should not count on us, we will continue maintaining the roadmap to keep moving forward until 2027 and beyond, as the Spanish want,” Sánchez insisted, rejecting the electoral call for this very year demanded by the PP and Vox, but also by the PNV and Junts.
The president emphasized that “our agenda does not end in 2027.” “Today, that deceitful opposition represented by Feijóo and Abascal wants to demolish these eight years of building rights, freedoms, and prosperity in Spain,” he warned. “This is the alternative we face: a xenophobic far-right and a right wing that swallows that xenophobia,” he alerted, in the face of Vox’s “white race supremacy” and the “national priority” of the PP’s regional pact with the far-right. “The deceivers, with their maneuvers; and us governing until 2027 and beyond,” Sánchez concluded, despite the bleak judicial outlook, amid great applause from the plenary of the Youth Congress.
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