Feijóo defends speaking with the PSOE and warns: "If I don't win, I don't deserve to be president"

Calls for "an effort" to raise the SMI without compromising the viability of companies

BARCELONA, July 7. (EUROPEAN PRESS) -

The leader of the PP and candidate for the presidency of the Government, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, has defended speaking with the PSOE and rebuilding bridges around consensus and has warned: "If I do not win, I do not deserve to be president of the Government."

"I want to recover the possibility of speaking with the PSOE, probably with a new general secretary," he said in an interview with 'El Periódico' on Friday collected by Europa Press.

He has assured that with the current socialist leader, Pedro Sánchez, it has not been possible, and has claimed that "the great consensus in defense, justice, foreign affairs and reforms for the economy".

Along these lines, he has expressed his desire for the PSOE to return to being a "State party", which in his opinion today is only the PP, and has asked --textually-- to turn the page on the era of confrontation and of blocks that he believes began after the 2016 general elections.

Feijóo has reiterated his desire to govern Spain alone and has called for concentrating the vote on the 'popular' so that there is a change of government.

"If the Spaniards want the PP to govern, let Sánchez leave, then there is only one possibility: that he choose a Popular Party ballot. If he takes from other parties he can stay the same," he warned.

He has maintained that his political career has been very clear on matters of violence against women, climate change and the defense of autonomies, he has listed, and has guaranteed: "There are issues that I am not going to give up because I would have to give up myself; my biography. I would have to repeal my party and I won't."

Asked about the dialogue table between the Government and the Generalitat, Feijóo has asserted that he has "no interest in going against any table if it is constituted and its fundamental objective is to deal with issues that do not affect others."

He has also criticized that the regional financing system "is clearly not worth it, and that's it", for which he has called for updating it.

The 'popular' candidate has defended raising the Minimum Interprofessional Wage (SMI) and lowering taxes on medium and low incomes, although he has advocated an increase that "does not question the viability of companies".

"I understand that an effort must be made because there are incomes, especially minimum wage income, which have lost a lot of purchasing power," he stated, and has predicted an agreement between the CEOE and the unions.

Feijóo has opened up to "adjustments" in the labor reform to --textually-- benefit certain economic sectors that find some rigidities to create employment.