Sánchez pulls "farming aura" and the "six seven" to speak before the Youth Council about rent, scholarships, and youth precarity

The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, acknowledged this Friday that there is a part of young people's language that escapes him. He knows it exists, he hears it at home and on social media, although he also doesn't pretend to master expressions that belong to another generation. He shared this during the inauguration of the XXVI Ordinary General Assembly of the Youth Council of Spain, held at the Círculo de Bellas Artes in Madrid.

"I have two very young daughters and I don't always understand young people," he confessed at the beginning of a speech in which he dared to use some of the most viral codes of the moment. The president spoke of "farming aura", an expression born on the internet and video games that refers to gaining charisma or prestige; of NPCs, characters that function automatically within a game, and of "six seven", a gesture turned into a meme among teenagers.

Sánchez used these references to address three problems that directly condition the lives of a large part of young people. "I don't need to know what 'farming aura' means to know that spending half your salary on rent is a problem for many of you," he stated.

Nor does he need to know what an NPC is, he continued, to understand that a scholarship can make the difference between continuing to study and abandoning education. "And I don't need to know what 'six seven' means to understand that chaining the word 'precarious' is what happens to many young people who are starting their working lives," he added.

The nod provoked laughter among the attendees, but the president wanted to move away from the usual caricature with which some leaders try to approach new generations. In his opinion, institutions must listen to their problems, recognize their diversity and allow their organizations to participate in public decisions.

This weekend, the assembly brings together the entities that make up the Youth Council of Spain (CJE), a platform formed by more than 60 youth organizations and regional councils. Created by law in 1983, its function stems from Article 48 of the Constitution, which obliges public authorities to promote the participation of young people in the political, social, economic, and cultural development of the country.

Rent that devours young people's salaries

Housing has occupied a good part of the intervention. The latest data from the CJE Emancipation Observatory place the emancipation rate of people between 16 and 29 years old at barely 14.5%, the lowest level since comparable records exist. Renting a home alone requires, on average, dedicating 98.7% of a young person's salary.

Sánchez has acknowledged that there is "much to do" as long as there are people who, even with a job, still cannot leave the family home. He has also pointed out the inequality that the possibility of emancipation depends more on the economic support of parents than on work and personal effort.

Faced with this situation, he has defended that since 2018, state investment in youth policies has doubled. Among the measures promoted by his governments, he has cited the Youth Cultural Bonus, the increase in the interprofessional minimum wage, the reinforcement of scholarships, the commitment to Vocational Training, and the increase in the Youth Rental Bonus to 300 euros per month.

The head of the Executive has also reclaimed the new State Housing Plan, endowed with around 7,000 million euros, and the obligation to permanently maintain the protection of homes financed with public resources. "Solutions to the housing problem cannot be demanded and, at the same time, put the interests of four vulture funds ahead of the future of thousands of young people," he defended.

Sánchez recalled that protected housing barely represents around 2% of the Spanish residential park, compared to percentages ranging between 10% and 17% in some Central European countries. In his opinion, the sale for decades of public promotions to the private market explains part of that difference and makes it necessary to prevent it from happening again.

He has also defended the Housing Law and has maintained that some of its tools are beginning to contain prices where they are applied. The president has pointed out that the real estate market "is clearly not working" under the exclusive logic of supply and demand, which is why he considers a stable public intervention necessary.

Sánchez's words have come after the farewell speech of the Council's president, Andrea González Henry, who has closed her two years in office with several direct demands to institutions. She has reminded that Spain still does not have a first state youth law, has asked for accessible public housing, the right to vote from the age of 16, and sufficient funding for youth councils.

González Henry has also lamented the closure of regional bodies such as the Youth Council of the Community of Madrid and has demanded that public policies incorporate generational impact assessments. "Youth is not the future," she repeated during her speech. "We are the present".

"Keep making noise"

Sánchez has taken up that call to listen to young people and has demanded that administrations offer them reasons to trust institutions. To do this, he has advocated for stable spaces for participation and dialogue capable of transforming detected problems into concrete proposals.

The president has also asked the media for "equal treatment" towards youth. He has rejected the permanent targeting and discourses that present new generations as more comfortable, individualistic, or demobilized. Against that narrative, he has highlighted their preparation, capacity to organize, and commitment to issues such as the climate emergency, human rights, and equality.

The intervention also addressed the effects of artificial intelligence on employment, public conversation, and the concentration of power. Sánchez has warned of the speed of technological changes and the uncertainty they cause among those who are trying to build their first life project.

In that scenario, he has warned of those who take advantage of real problems such as housing, salaries, or insecurity to fuel fear, confrontation, and hatred. Social networks, he stated, can serve to organize and raise one's voice, although they can also trap users in bubbles and become "weapons of mass destruction for our societies and our democracies".

Before saying goodbye, Sánchez encouraged young people to maintain a critical attitude even with the decisions of his own Government. "You have to keep making noise, you have to keep demanding, you have to keep saying what you don't like," he claimed. He also asked them to distrust easy answers and to protect empathy against messages that turn any concern into hostility towards other people.

The XXVI Assembly will continue during the weekend and will elect the new Permanent Commission of the Youth Council for the next two years. Andrea González Henry delivered her last institutional speech as president this Friday before handing over to the new team.