Spain: Sánchez Conveys To King Felipe VI Need To Form Government As Soon As Possible

Spain’s Acting Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, was given an audience this week by King Felipe VI at his summer residence of Marivent Palace in Palma. At this traditional summer meeting, Pedro Sánchez conveyed the need to form a government as soon as possible, in order to urgently tackle the major challenges facing Spain and expressed his desire to avoid fresh elections.

Sánchez informed the King about the round of meetings he has held with different social groups and explained that these contacts seek common ground to forge an agreement on a programme of the six main goals for Spain that he outlined in the investiture session.

The aim of these meetings is to create the foundations for an open program to make a progressive proposal that Pedro Sánchez can then pass on to the other parliamentary forces, which he will call on to assume their share of responsibility, and ask not to block the situation so as to avoid fresh elections and allow the formation of a government that does not depend on pro-independence forces.

Pedro Sánchez also expressed to King Felipe VI the government’s satisfaction at the buoyancy of the Spanish economy which, in his opinion, “despite the slowdown of growth, continues to grow above the European average” and stressed that growth is not guaranteed under the economic cycle and hence “it is necessary to make certain transformations and reforms to increase job creation, because Spain continues to have a high level of unemployment”.

Sánchez also highlighted the all-time record in the number of National Insurance contributors in Spain, according to the figures published this week, and expressed his particular satisfaction at the record number of female contributors and the increase in permanent employment contracts.