The Minister of the Presidency, Justice and Relations with the Cortes, Félix Bolaños, stated this Wednesday that he has “nothing to add” about the unions' proposal to call a general strike on November 11, and insisted that “it is not an election campaign”, a campaign that, as he recalled, will start two days later, on November 13.
Bolaños made these statements to the media before inaugurating the II Conference of Directors of Common Justice Services at the Lienzo Norte Congress Palace in Ávila. Asked about the date chosen by the trade union organizations and whether it could condition the development of the campaign, the socialist minister was emphatic: “We have nothing to add”.
In this regard, he pointed out: “It is not an election campaign and it is a date chosen by the unions”, and added that, although the Government will not go further, “we share the reasons why the unions want to demand higher wages and a right to affordable housing”.
The head of Justice stressed that the call responds to a “very widespread feeling” and a “very global consensus in Spanish society”, and expressed his “deep respect” for the strike. In that vein, he defended that the Government is “involved and committed” in the “fight” for decent housing and better wages.
Wages, housing and decrees published in the BOE
During his speech, Félix Bolaños stressed that, in recent years of PSOE governments, the minimum interprofessional wage has risen by 66 percent. In addition, he focused on the housing decrees published this Wednesday in the Official State Gazette (BOE).
The minister described these measures as “reasonable” and “balanced”, and maintained that they improve the situation of tenants and small owners, while, as he said, “they put a stop to the speculative abuses of some funds”. For this reason, he asked for the support of the parliamentary groups when these decrees are brought for validation in the Permanent Deputation.
The PP accuses unions of acting for political reasons
In parallel, the national spokesman and deputy secretary of Culture and Sport of the Popular Party, Borja Sémper, has accused the unions of promoting a “political” general strike to “favor” the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, in the middle of the election campaign. After the words of the deputy general secretary of the PSOE, María Jesús Montero, who admitted that it is a strike “against the opposition”, Sémper maintained that the partisan use of the trade union movement “does a disservice to the credibility of the unions”.
In an interview on RNE, the popular leader stated that there have been sufficient reasons to mobilize in defense of workers' rights and that, however, they have not done so until now, which is why he framed the call as an “eminently political decision” aimed at “favoring the political action of Pedro Sánchez”.
Ester Muñoz speaks of “instrumentalization”
The spokesperson for the Popular Group in Congress, Ester Muñoz, went in the same direction and questioned the Socialist Party's campaign director's assertion that it is a campaign “against the PP and not against the Government”, when, as she recalled, strikes are usually directed against the Executive.
In an interview on Antena 3, Muñoz assured that, when the Government promotes strikes against the opposition, “that is called something else and does not happen in democratic countries”. She also described the call as a “political strike managed from the instances of the Government and power”, and insisted that, although one can be in favor or against, “that it is political, I believe no one believes otherwise”.
The popular leader stressed that she does not consider it a coincidence that in eight years the unions have not called any general strike and that now, as she said, they are doing so “in the middle of an election campaign”. In addition, she stated that “people live worse than three years ago” and that the Government of Pedro Sánchez has “destroyed the middle class” in Spain, while defending that on November 29 citizens should go to vote because, in her opinion, “it does not matter who governs”.