Remember that Spain supports a debate in the EU on a “new edition” of European funds starting in 2026
MADRID, 16 May. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, assured this Thursday that the Spanish economy is not going like a motorcycle, but like “a rocket”, even in such a complex international geopolitical context.
“We do not perform economic miracles, but we govern much better than the right in economic policy,” the president stressed during the inauguration of the IV edition of the forum ‘European Funds: Innovation for sustainable growth’, organized by elDiario.es.
The president highlighted that just yesterday the European Commission once again revised upwards its growth forecast for the Spanish economy in 2024 to 2.1%, that is, three times more than the eurozone average.
This means that Spain will continue to be the country that grows the most in all of Europe both in the year 2024 and in the year 2025. “These are spectacular data of a Spain that is moving in the right direction in the face of the prophecies, the failed hoaxes of an apocalyptic and also misguided opposition,” he noted.
Thus, the head of the Executive has highlighted his economic policy against the economic “miracles” of the PP, which “ended as they ended” and now many of its “makers” are going through the courts.
Sánchez has highlighted the data on the labor market in Spain, which reflects that 4 out of every 10 new jobs created in the euro zone are done in the country and that the 21 million Social Security affiliates have already been exceeded. , a success that the president has linked to companies and workers, but also to the economic policy that his Government is proposing.
“Today our labor market is no longer a crushing machine of aspirations and future plans, today it functions as a space where opportunities and life projects are created,” he praised.
It has thus influenced the contribution of employment to growth because, historically, the Spanish labor market was a “machine of inequality and also precariousness.” Before the labor reform, one in every four jobs in Spain was temporary, recalled the president.
“After the reform, only one in ten jobs in the private sector are temporary. That is, we are talking about historic lows,” he highlighted, after highlighting the agreement of social agents and political groups to promote labor reform. .
On the contrary, Sánchez has charged against the “enormous exercise of irresponsibility” of the main opposition party, because “they were willing to do anything, even transfugismo, in order to wreck something that was good for the economy and for the whole of companies and workers”.
Another aspect that is contributing to the dynamization of the economy are the positive effects of the increase in the interprofessional minimum wage, which has grown by 54% over the last six years, the aid and measures against inflation and the escalation of energy prices.
These income protection policies have contributed to Spain being the second OECD country where the real per capita income of households has grown the most in the year 2023, which has led, in turn, to another milestone, which is recovering the income levels prior to the bursting of the real estate bubble in 2008.
“More than 15 years have passed since the beginning of that financial crisis and during those 15 years, middle-class Spaniards and workers had not managed to recover those levels of income and real per capita income,” said the president after criticizing the “enormous mistake” of the neoliberal recipes for the financial crisis of 2008.
A “very relevant” part of the excellent economic results is due, according to Sánchez, to the promotion of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience funds. “I think that the European funds, if they demonstrate anything, are an amendment to the entire neoliberal response that Europe gave to the financial crisis of 2008,” he highlighted.
According to the head of the Executive, today European funds represent a historic opportunity, which Spain “is taking advantage of” to modernize the productive fabric and consequently address and anticipate the great challenges facing humanity and lay new foundations for prosperity in the world. country, fundamentally linked to the ecological transition and the green and digital transformation.
Sánchez recalled that Spain has been allocated 160 billion euros until 2026. However, the Government has been defending for months that it would be necessary to start debating a “new edition” of these funds from 2026.
Even so, Sánchez has highlighted the milestones achieved so far, such as Spain’s leadership in the deployment of 5G technology in Europe, the increase in cybersecurity capabilities, the development of the data economy or promoting digital transformation in SMEs, through the ‘digital kit’, which has already benefited 370,000 small and medium-sized companies.
