The Minister of Finance, Arcadi España, stated this Monday that, after the pact reached between the Popular Party and Vox to run jointly for the Senate, "a new party was born today," and maintained that supporting that alliance is equivalent to "always voting for the far-right."
During an interview on La noche en 24 horas of TVE, España ironized by pointing out that the two parties "have decided to get married," after the leader of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, and the president of Vox, Santiago Abascal, closed an agreement affecting 23 constituencies with the aim of achieving a broad majority in the Upper House.
A pact affecting 23 Senate constituencies
According to that understanding, Vox will not run in six provinces and the PP will do the same in three, in a move that seeks to stop the joint candidacy sealed by PSOE, Frente Amplio and territorial lefts in the Senate last October 16.
Arcadi España has defended that "it is not the same" to pact with progressive parties that "do not question acquired rights" and that "do not want to censor," as it is to do so with "a right-wing bloc" that, in his opinion, proposes "setbacks." In that context, he assured that he does not remember "any electoral campaign in our democracy" in which the program of PP and Vox is to tell citizens that "we will live worse if they govern."
Defense of the Government and criticism of the opposition's strategy
The Minister of Finance stressed that the Executive does not insult, although it does listen "to others who gravely insult the President of the Government," and framed the campaign in a dispute between "fear" and "hope." "We are an optimistic party that trusts its country and believes that we have done well and that we can do better," he claimed, before adding that "spirits are strong."
Asked about last Saturday's riots in Barcelona, Arcadi España endorsed the words of the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, and described the altercations as "pure vandalism," while condemning "without palliative" all types of "violence." He also remarked that "justice must act and that is what it is doing."
Accusations for questioning the electoral system
España reproached PP and Vox for, in his opinion, using "anything that happens to attack the Government," which, he said, "does a disservice to democracy." In addition, he accused them of "destabilizing" and questioning the electoral system by stating that "the postal vote and the vote of descendants of Spaniards living in other countries are not clear."
"We are a consolidated, firm, transparent democracy, one of the most advanced in Europe, and we have systems that work," he stated, before insisting that what he does not consider advanced is "the right and the far-right," to which he attributed "worrying tics from the past."