Pablo Casado presents Spain with a vision for the future of the center-right

The head of the revived opposition center-right in Spain has said he wants to form a “national salvation government” to take office and carry out comprehensive reforms including tax cuts within three months.

Pablo Casado, the PP’s popular party, has risen in the polls and told the Financial Times that if he wins the election by the end of 2023, he would gather outside figures to push through fiscal reforms as well as labor market changes. Simplification of the dismantled Spanish system of government.

He stressed in an interview that what represented the imminent death of the PP was a rebound, as he sought to minimize factors such as past corruption and factors such as the future dependence on the right-wing Vox.

“When we take office, we need a government. . . almost of national salvation, “said the 40-year-old. Referring to the Italian administration formed by Mario Draghi this year, he added:” We need people with a lot of experience, internationally and with different political orientations; not only conservatives, liberals and Christian Democrats, but also former Social Democrats. . . A government like the Italian one, but democratically elected. ”

Although the Spanish Parliament has been out of office for more than two years, the coalition of the socialist-radical left of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez does not have a majority and has undermined the PP’s huge victory. Madridthis month’s regional elections. The center-right party has been leading national polls ever since.

My only intention is to govern. PP is not part of a bloc with Vox. . . he can govern if he has one more seat than Sanchez

Some polls suggest that after the next election, the PP and Vox would have a majority in the Spanish Parliament – a major change that the Casado party followed the Socialists steadily after three years.

Casado has argued that the Spanish Covid-19 landscape will strengthen its options: “Crises strengthen governments, even if they mismanage things,” he said. “The consequences weaken, even though they manage things well.”

It is a tremendous turnaround for the man who intended to leave politics during the PP era expelled from power in the midst of the 2018 corruption scandal. Casado said he had an interview with a Paris multinational to throw the cap into the ring when his party held earlier leadership elections. Even after his unexpected victory candidates with more experience, the party’s expectations were poor.

“I had a dead party, it was the third in every poll,” he said. “He was slipping.”

His priority was initially to prevent the Citizens ’centrist party from overcoming the PP – which garnered just 218,000 votes in the country’s April 2019 elections – and then reunite the country’s fragmented right, he said.

“My party also said,‘ Casado is obsessed, he should stop trying to unite the center right and he should go after Sanchez, ’” he said. “But I was clear, with all three [parties on the right] it was impossible to win. “

This task has been carried out to a certain extent, as the vote of Ciudadanos has fallen in the last elections. Casado said he is now focusing on presenting practical proposals to Spanish voters instead of making agreements with other parties.

“We have to get there [in power] and approved all reforms within three months, ”he said, listing plans to reduce income and corporate taxes, eliminate inheritance taxes, pay labor reform to improve flexibility in the labor market, and adapt the Spanish regional government system.

Polls show that a PP government would need the support of Vox parliamentarians to complete the administration.

“My only intention is to govern,” Casado said. “PP is not part of a bloc with Vox. . . he can govern if he has one more seat than Sánchez. ”

Whether or not he answered yes when asked Vox it was a democratic party. The far-right group has said the Sanchez government is the worst in 80 years, expressing Francisco Franco’s 1939-75 desire for a fascist regime.

Casado said the corruption scandals that helped the PP oust him from power three years ago were behind him. “The party made me the leader, it was to break with that past,” he said.

But there are still several lawsuits in the courts, including whether PP interior ministry officials used police to illegally obtain evidence of corruption. This year Casado has put the party’s headquarters up for sale in the wake of a corruption case aimed at financing renovations more than a decade ago.

Former PP Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy was asked if he knew of any “black accounts” operated by a former party treasurer, he said: “In the end, what we have decided is not to talk any more about this issue,” noting that the issue was before the courts.

Meanwhile, the allegations have disappeared from the political background. The PP could also extract dividends from a public backlash against what the Sánchez government expected forgiveness imprisoned Catalan separatists.

But Casado has significant obstacles. Unless Sanchez calls early elections, it is unlikely that parliament will be dissolved before the end of his 2023 term.

The Sanchez administration is waiting for the EU coronavirus recovery fund – specifically a subsidy of 70 billion euros over the next three years to Spain – will help boost the economic recovery and boost its fortune.

Socialist Deputy Prime Minister Carmen Calvo also said that Casado is in the shadows Isabel Diaz Ayuso, The leader of the PP in the PP region, was victorious in the Madrid elections, and could not repeat his success.

Casado himself sharpened his suggestions to the Madrid result, believing it was “not the reason but the consequence” of his party’s better situation.

“There is a clear change in the Spanish political cycle and we are ready for government,” he said. “I don’t know if it will be in the next 12 months, but I think it will be soon.”