Sánchez asks Barcelona and large cities to "side" the Government's agenda for 28M

It offers Collboni "all the instruments" to meet its housing commitments

BARCELONA, 4 May. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, has asked this Thursday Barcelona and the big cities to be "on the side of the agenda" of social and economic policies of the central Executive in the municipal elections of May 28.

"On May 28 you have to go out to vote and defend what the people think, the majority of the people," he said at a PSC event with 2,500 attendees in the Sant Adrià de Besòs Forum Park (Barcelona), in which the mayor of the PSC for Barcelona, ​​Jaume Collboni, and the mayoress of Sant Adrià and candidate for re-election, Filo Cañete, have also intervened.

Sánchez has called for an alliance of progressive mayors who support the policies "for a majority" of the Government, as he defends that they are the labor reform, pensions, the new Housing Law and measures such as the Minimum Vital Income (IMV).

According to him, these initiatives have materialized "many of the anxieties and mobilizations" in the streets of Barcelona during the protests over the cuts during the 2011 crisis with a PP government in response to its neoliberal recipe, in his words.

The president has stressed that the Government has managed to approve a Law on Science, Education, Universities and Vocational Training, and a labor reform with unions and employers and the pension system, in addition to "reestablishing coexistence in Catalonia".

"We have been able to do all this after a pandemic and in the middle of the war. What are we not going to be able to do when the wind blows in our favour? That day will come," he predicted.

He has also expressed the "unwavering" commitment of the Executive for the citizens who suffer the consequences of the war in Ukraine and the drought, for which almost 500 municipalities are already in an exceptional situation in Catalonia.

In addition, Sánchez has defended the initiatives of the Government to "turn housing into a basic necessity" and not a luxury, as he believes happened with the crisis of the real estate bubble.

Faced with "the land law that legalized the hit and speculation", he has vindicated a model that is committed to talent and quality employment, and in which growth is compatible with respect for the environment.

"There is again the difference between the right and the left when it governs," he added.

He has also promised to offer Collboni "all the instruments" from the Government so that he can fulfill his commitments to guarantee access to sustainable housing in Barcelona if he is mayor.

"For me, Jaume, it will be a real power to walk with you as mayor of Barcelona," he told him, after he asked him to meet with him if he is sworn in as mayor.