Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has urged political parties to work together

Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has urged political parties to work together towards national reconstruction in the same spirit that recently yielded the landmark EU coronavirus recovery fund.

Holding up as an example the EU agreement that will grant Spain €140 billion for the Covid-19 recovery effort the leader of the Socialist Party (PSOE) said if the different governments had managed to reach an agreement in Europe, Spain should be able to do the same.

Sánchez, who heads a minority government in a coalition with the leftist Unidas Podemos party, addressed lawmakers before parliament goes on summer recess to explain the details of the EU deal, and asked for a similar spirit of consensus at home in order to create a more modern, digital, sustainable country.

But the speech made little impact on the opposition. Pablo Casado, head of the conservative Popular Party (PP), instead criticized Sánchez for playing a minor role in the EU debate, and described the EU funds as “a bailout.”

Casado underscored the fact that coronavirus cases are surging in Spain again, calling it “the most out-of-control situation” in the entire EU.

He said that the government continues to do nothing to prepare for new outbreaks, and that it is ignoring the PP’s suggestions for reforming ordinary laws to avoid having to decree national emergency states in future.

Meanwhile the far-right Vox, which is the third-largest force in parliament with 52 MPs, announced that it will call a vote of no confidence against Sánchez in September.

Vox leader Santiago Abascal called the Spanish government “criminal, illegitimate and unscrupulous.”

Alluding to the three-month lockdown to fight the spread of the coronavirus Abascal warned “Don’t even think about locking us up again, because we won’t put up with it.”

Written by BayRadio