Sánchez prioritizes recovery and covid at the dialogue table

“We all want tangible results from the dialogue table,” agreed Pedro Sánchez, in response to Pere Aragonès’ speech. However, he added, the qualification of “tangible results” will be “probably” different depending on the interlocutor. That is, the two parties will disagree. “We defend overcome the process, stop having two separate blocks of Catalan society, the pandemic “, which shows that all administrations and citizens have to act” together “.

In any case, the president pointed out, the government does not renounce dialogue or progress in pursuit of “the concord and coexistence“for a society that” has lived fractured “in recent years.

So it’s from “common sense“(key expression of the appearance of this Wednesday), he defended, that now the accent is not put on the table, because efforts must be concentrated, he believes, on the fight against covid-19 and economic recovery, both in Catalonia as in the rest of Spain. “The logical thing is that now the priorities of the Government and the Government are other, in the urgent, not in the important“.

Asked how he sees Catalonia today, and after the granting of pardons, Sánchez defended that he lives in a “normal“Which I did not enjoy four years ago. A” better normality. ”

2021 ends and more than three years have passed since the mandate of the General Council of the Judiciary, appointed in 2013, at the time of the absolute majority of the PP, expired. The two major parties agreed to unblock the Ombudsman, the Constitutional Court, the Data Protection Agency and the Court of Accounts. The discrepancies persist in the CGPJ. The Executive blames the popular for the “blockade”, while they demand a legal reform as a requirement to guarantee that in future replacements the judges are the ones who elect their governing body.

Now, in addition, the electoral scene is crossed. On February 13, the elections in Castilla y León and, for June or October, the polls will open in Andalusia. Is the renewal of the CGPJ impossible? The journalists asked him. “I would not say that it is impossible, but with this opposition, let’s face it, it is highly unlikely, and I regret it because the constitutional duty is above any consideration and political position.”

“You have to comply with the Constitution when you are in the Government and when you are in the opposition,” he stressed, once again blaming the PP for its closure and its rebellion with the Magna Carta.

Just a year ago, the president was asked about some kind of reform in the Crown. Juan Carlos I had left months before for the United Arab Emirates and the investigation of the Prosecutor’s Office on him remained open (as follows today). “Step by step, step by step, they will learn how the roadmap indicated by the Head of State, King Felipe VI, for the renewal of the Crown in terms of transparency and exemplarity is materialized.” This Wednesday, 365 days later, the question was obvious: what happened to that “roadmap” that he had committed, where was he?

“When they have news, it will be because that is how it occurs,” he said, without giving further clues. He immediately linked with the manual answer: “Absolute recognition of the work that the Head of State is doing and the personal commitment of my party and my Government to the constitutional institutions.”

Sánchez did not specify if the update of the Crown will arrive once the Supreme Court Prosecutor’s Office closes the proceedings that it keeps open on the alleged business of the king emeritus. Asked if it should be the Zarzuela that should “accelerate” the changes, he took refuge in his natural shield. “In all the questions that have been asked about the current head of State, I have recognized the exercise of transparency and exemplaryness that [Felipe VI] He has been working since he became the Head of State. In that I stay and that I reaffirm “,

The journalists questioned the president about the lawsuit for harassment that Corinna Larsen, ex-lover of Juan Carlos I, brought against him before the British Justice and if the Executive considers that the father of the current monarch is part or not of the House of the King. Juan Carlos relies on this circumstance to defend his immunity. Again, Sánchez put up a wall. “What the judges decide in this case or, rather, not the judges, but the condition that is given, will be the one that he respects as president of the Government,” he dispatched.

The two central axes of this Wednesday’s appearance were, as expected, the pandemic and the labor reform. Regarding the latter, parliamentary support falters, although the Government still has a month of margin until the validation debate in Congress. Sánchez reiterated that the Executive will “defend” the agreement reached with employers and unions, and stressed that it is “common sense” that the legislature “respect” the content of that text. He did not dare to completely rule out that there may be changes, but if there were they would be minor. At all times the president valued the consensus reached with the social agents, and praised their “good performance”, which should be an “example” for the political forces.

Sánchez was asked how he sees the promoter of the decree law, Yolanda Díaz, who can become his rival on the spectrum of the left in the following generals and whose prominence has grown in recent months. In fact, she is the best valued leader, very close to the approved one (4.84), ahead of the president himself (4.55), according to the CIS December barometer.

The Chief Executive replied that he is “delighted” with the work being done by his Cabinet, a “collegiate body”, and “very satisfied and very grateful” with the work of his ministers and, in particular, with that of the head of Job. “Make no mistake about it,” he added. But she, like the rest of the ministers when they are appointed, are members “of the Government of Spain, not of a party.”

The president was repeatedly asked about the shortening of quarantines by covid, as the United Kingdom and the United States have already approved. From the current ten days to seven or five. Sánchez preferred not to make any specific proposal, he referred to the recommendation made by the experts of the Alerts Report and the decision adopted this Wednesday by the Interterritorial Council of the National Health System. Several communities have already claimed this reduction, considering that the sixth wave should be addressed with different measures. The president indicated that the decision, “very important for many compatriots”, will be known this Wednesday, always within “absolute respect” for what Health agrees with the set of territories.

In the answers, Sánchez threw a relevant observation: the Government, in the fight against this phase of the pandemic, tries to weigh different elements, keep the “balance” between public health, mental health and the economic growth of the country. Co-governance has been proven, defended, as a key element in the fight against covid and in the vaccination process. It is “evident”, he argued, that neither Spain nor the world are the same as a year ago, when there was no immunization, but “better, more prepared and protected.”