Simon Hunter
SPAIN’S Socialist Party Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez used an appearance in Congress today to defend his government’s record, and attack what he called a ‘waterfall of sludge’ and ‘Trump-style’ techniques from the political opposition.
Sanchez was speaking in the lower house of parliament to report on the latest European Council meeting in Brussels as well as relations between Spain and Morocco, but used his time at the lectern to launch a huge broadside against parties such as the conservative Partido Popular and Vox.
Spain is headed in a ‘good direction’, he argued, but decried the fact that ‘some people want to hide this reality underneath the mud’.
“They want to conceal the good results of the government and their lack, by the way, of a political plan underneath noise, defamation and agitation,” he added, in comments reported by Europa Press.
“At the end of the day, they are using well-known Trump- and Bolsonaro-style techniques,” he continued, in reference to the former presidents of the US and Brazil, Donald Trump and Jair Bolsonaro, respectively.
“[Techniques] of the international far right that seek to weaken our democracy, and intoxicate public debate, as happens in many other democracies in the world,” he said.
He said that he would continue to ‘fight’ against these tactics, because ‘behind the waterfall of mud that citizens often see on their screens there is, and there will be, a government and a state that are working’.
Sanchez also insisted that he will see out his political term.
“We have more than three years ahead of us to continue to transform Spain, so that there is greater prosperity, more jobs, more rights, more international weight, and better coexistence,” he said.
The prime minister’s position, however, is far from secure. His Socialist Party heads a coalition along with leftist alliance Sumar, but the groups lack a working majority in Congress.
As a result they must rely on the votes of smaller, regional parties, including the pro-Catalan independence Junts per Catalunya and Catalan Republican Left (ERC) to pass key legislation such as the budget.
Sanchez was voted back into office by Congress late last year after the inconclusive general election of July 2023.
The PP won the most votes at the elections but was unable to form a government despite securing the support of the far-right Vox party.
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