2023-07-22 17:29:59
The campaign for the Spanish legislative elections, which ends on Sunday, was mainly disputed with slogans, often dodging the substantive debate on the programs of the two main candidates, Pedro Sánchez and Alberto Núñez Feijóo, and those of their allies from the extremes, which they will need to govern.
20 Minutes summarizes for you who are the protagonists of this electoral deadline and the programs of the two favorites.
Pedro Sánchez, the outgoing Socialist Prime Minister
Several times given for dead politically, Pedro Sánchez, 51, has been in power in Spain since 2018. He then overthrew the conservative Mariano Rajoy thanks to a motion of censure supported by the entire left and the Basque and Catalan parties.
Since then, his government, which has had the radical left in its ranks since 2020, has passed a wide range of reforms legalizing euthanasia, rehabilitating the memory of victims of Francoism or allowing people to change gender freely from the age of 16.
Fluent in English, this economist with an international profile has also increased Spain’s influence on the European scene.
Accustomed to gambles, he hopes to prove the polls wrong, which give him the loser of this ballot which he called to everyone’s surprise at the end of May, the day after his camp’s debacle in the local elections.
His program: “Forward” for a “better Spain”
The PSOE highlights the economic results of the Sánchez government, with strong growth (5.5% in 2022) and inflation falling back below 2% in June, an overall better performance than that of its European neighbors.
In this area, the PSOE is considering the “extension” of the temporary taxation of the profits of banks, energy suppliers and large fortunes, which Sumar wants to perpetuate.
After having increased the minimum wage and reformed the labor market in order to fight against precariousness, the PSOE proposes a “pact for full employment with the social partners” and an action plan against youth unemployment, which is very high in Spain.
Any other subject, on immigration, the Socialists want to increase reception capacities.
Alberto Núñez Feijóo, the favored conservator
At the head of the People’s Party (PP) for a year, Alberto Núñez Feijóo has put the Spanish right back in battle order after one of its worst internal crises. President of Galicia (north-west), his region of origin, for thirteen years, this respected baron of the PP aged 61 years hopes that his “time has come” to lead the country.
A favorite in the polls and a moderate politician, Alberto Núñez Feijóo has, however, given his backing to alliances with the far-right Vox party in several regions and municipalities since the local elections. An ally with embarrassing positions whose support could be essential to him again if he wins the election on Sunday.
The PP program: “the time has come”
In its program, the PP accuses the Socialists of having neglected the purchasing power of families and proposes a temporary reduction in VAT on meat, fish and canned goods. Above all, he promises to “reduce the tax burden” for “families, the self-employed (and) businesses”, by means of a “comprehensive reform of the tax system” which will include the elimination of the tax on large fortunes.
The PP admitted that the labor market reform was “substantially good” and indicated that it would not go back on it. He also proposes to fight against the increase in public debt, which exceeds 110% of GDP, and to reduce the budget deficit, after years of “uncontrolled” debt. The PP also wants to abolish the recent law intended to curb the rise in rents.
Alberto Núñez Feijóo pledged to “abolish Sanchism” (named after Pedro Sánchez), that is to say “all those laws inspired by minorities and which undermine majorities”, in the first place the law on gender self-determination.
He also wants to return to the law on explicit sexual consent, which has allowed sex offenders to be released or to obtain reduced sentences, on the one allowing minors aged 16 and over to abort without parental authorization and on the legalization of assisted suicide.
The PP finally wants to abolish the so-called “democratic memory” law, adopted in October 2022 to rehabilitate the memory of the victims of the Civil War and Francoism.
Yolanda Díaz, the communist who united the radical left
Number three in the Sánchez government, the Communist Minister of Labor Yolanda Díaz managed to gather behind her for this election fifteen parties representing the left of the left, including the Podemos party, the main party of this political family, with which the negotiations were extremely tense.
Almost unknown when she arrived at the Ministry of Labor in 2020, this 52-year-old lawyer quickly established herself in the political landscape until she became the political leader with the highest popularity, according to polls.
Partial unemployment during the Covid crisis, revaluation of the minimum wage, reform of the labor market intended to reduce precariousness: it carried out numerous reforms with a sense of compromise welcomed by the social partners, including employers.
Yolanda Díaz, who hopes to be able to renew a government coalition with Pedro Sánchez, has a program firmly rooted on the left, the flagship measure of which is a universal income of 20,000 euros for all 18-year-olds.
Santiago Abascal, l’ultranationaliste
Five years after his first electoral successes, Santiago Abascal now dreams of being a kingmaker, even number two in the government, if the support of his Vox party is essential for the conservatives.
This 47-year-old former PP activist, with worked muscles and an impeccably trimmed beard, has managed to resurrect a marginal far right in Spain since the end of the Franco dictatorship in 1975.
His violent rejection of Catalan separatism having found some echo in the electorate after the secession attempt of Catalonia in 2017, Vox, born in 2013 from a split in the PP, became in 2019 the third force in Parliament.
Beyond the fierce defense of the unity of Spain, his program rejects the existence of gender violence, criticizes “climate fanaticism” and is very openly anti-LGBT and anti-abortion. Ultranationalist and ultraconservative positions that bring him closer to his Hungarian ally Viktor Orban.
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