Every Spaniard will have a doctor and a school within 30 minutes of their home if ruling socialist party PSOE is elected in December, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said in a new election bid to bridge the gap between urban and underpopulated rural areas.

Sánchez made his re-election pledge at a socialist rally in Úbeda (Jaén, Andalousia) on Saturday.

According to his new pledge, all Spanish citizens are to enjoy basic public services such as education and healthcare within a maximum of half an hour’s distance from their homes.

Sánchez also reiterated his and his government’s total commitment to improving the situation of the Iberian country’s most depopulated areas, noting its wish to help regions – like the EU’s largest region of Castilla y León or Aragón – boost their economic contribution to the GDP, currently at 30%.

At the same time, the prime minister reiterated the importance of a cohesive country where all regions have the same economic and political weight.

Building a homeland means “sharing opportunities and decentralising the institutions of the state and not locating everything in the capital”, PSOE’s leader added.

With an eye on the upcoming election cycle in Spain, Sánchez presented the achievements of his government with coalition partner left-wing Unidas Podemos (United We Can/EU Left).

“We are not going to talk about any economic miracle, but Spain is growing more than the EU average, and this has nothing to do with healers or tele-preachers; it has to do with the PSOE managing the economy better than the right-wing (of PP and the far-right VOX party) “, he stated.

Among the coalition’s successes, Sánchez cited the pension reform, the labour market reform, the new housing law and all the progressive laws passed in the legislature “in the middle of a war, amid a pandemic, with a volcano (…)”.

Sánchez devoted a large part of his speech to PP’s recent regularisation of illegal irrigation systems in the region of Andalucia, home to the Doñana natural reserve – one of Europe’s most important biodiversity hotspots. He criticised PP for “its arrogance”and the “climate denial” of VOX (PP’s potential political ally in Madrid), noting that it is not accompanied by science, UNESCO, or the European Commission.

According to a fresh poll, the left-wing platform Sumar would become the fourth political force in Spain, after PSOE, PP, and the far-right party VOX, and ahead of Unidas Podemos.

If confirmed, this would mean a political “sorpasso” (overtaking) of Unidas Podemos by Sumar in the left camp – a development that could position the new left-wing party as an alternative for the socialists to forge a progressive coalition with a different configuration.

(Fernando Heller | EuroEFE.EURACTIV.es)

More on the same topic...

Lawmakers deadlocked over role of non-EU political parties

Tightening rules on EU political parties to prevent foreign interference could lead to parties from Ukraine and other pre-accession states being prevented from joining pan-EU political groups and "send a wrong message to the world", lawmakers have told EURACTIV.