The PP describes Sánchez's balance sheet as "insulting" and again declares the legislature over: "The countdown has been activated"

The Popular Party has responded to Pedro Sánchez's assessment with a new offensive focused on corruption and the government's parliamentary weakness. Miguel Tellado has described the speech delivered by the president from La Moncloa as "frankly insulting" and has again taken for granted that the legislature will end before the summer of 2027.

The general secretary of the PP has disseminated a video on social media after Sánchez presented the accountability report 'Cumpliendo' (Complying). "He lives completely out of touch with reality and immersed in a bubble of lies, privileges, and corruption," Tellado stated, accusing the head of the Executive of ignoring problems of access to housing, rising prices, job insecurity, and the deterioration of public services.

The response fell to Génova's number two while Alberto Núñez Feijóo is in Lima to attend Keiko Fujimori's inauguration. The PP leader already made his own assessment of the course last week and also presented the Government as exhausted, despite Sánchez maintaining his intention to complete the remaining year of the legislature.

Tellado exchanges economic data for court cases

Sánchez had argued hours earlier that the Government "works" and has placed Spain in better conditions than in 2018. The president highlighted the approval of 26 laws during this session period and boasted about the progress of the economy and employment.

Among the data used by Moncloa are the 22.5 million affiliates to Social Security and an unemployment rate below 10%, its lowest level in 18 years. Sánchez also assured that Spain has been the fastest-growing major economy in the European Union for almost three years and has claimed credit for the increase in spending allocated to the welfare state.

Tellado dismissed that assessment as a display of triumphalism. "It is insulting to all Spaniards who suffer the drama of access to housing, the unstoppable rise in prices, precarious jobs, or increasingly deficient public services," he declared.

The PP has preferred to shift the discussion towards the judicial procedures affecting the PSOE, the Government, and the president's inner circle. "Pedro Sánchez's real balance sheet can be summarized in two facts: three convictions in eight months and zero Budgets in four years," Tellado stated.

The popular leader included in that count the resolutions issued against the former Attorney General of the State, former socialist leaders linked to the 'Koldo case,' and David Sánchez. He also spoke of "126 defendants of Sanchismo," a figure disseminated for weeks by Génova that groups different procedures and people with different judicial situations under the same label.

"While Sánchez appears in Moncloa, his little friends do so in the Supreme Court, the National Court, or the courts of Madrid and Badajoz," Tellado added. The general secretary also took advantage of the judicial declaration of two Ferraz employees in the so-called 'sewer case' to reinforce his attack against the president.

The popular leadership has even transformed the name of the report presented by Sánchez. "More than 'fulfilling,' his slogan should be 'fleeing' or 'committing crimes'," Tellado quipped before accusing the Government and the PSOE of acting "as if there were no tomorrow."

The lack of Budgets returns to the center of the attack

The second front chosen by the PP has been the fragility of the parliamentary majority. Tellado recalled the two rejections by Congress of the stability path, the previous step to prepare the General State Budgets, and considered that the new accounts are "dead before being born."

The Government continues to work with the extended 2023 Budgets. Sánchez reiterated during his appearance that he intends to present new accounts, although the refusal of several partners again casts doubt on whether he can gather the necessary support to approve them.

Tellado also pointed out the withdrawal of the housing decree that the Executive intended to bring to the Council of Ministers. The Government gave up approving it after verifying that it lacked a sufficient majority to subsequently validate it in Congress.

"He has ended the course with two very resounding parliamentary setbacks," affirmed the general secretary of the PP. Against that portrait, Sánchez defended that the parliamentary minority has not prevented more than a third of the laws approved throughout the legislature from being passed.

Génova's number two has added the PP's victories in Extremadura, Aragon, Castilla y León, and Andalusia to his particular balance. "Resounding victories for the Popular Party and resounding setbacks for the Socialist Party," he proclaimed before presenting these results as a preview of the upcoming general elections.

The PP avoids responding to Sánchez's climate pact

Sánchez's appearance had begun with the emergency caused by forest fires. The president has called for a state pact against climate change and has asked for the involvement of all administrations in the prevention, extinction, and reconstruction of affected areas.

Tellado has highlighted the work of the PP's regional and local governments and has assured that the entire party remains committed to helping residents. His intervention has not clarified whether Génova is willing to sit down with the Government to negotiate the pact proposed by Sánchez.

The president had directly attacked the positions held by the PP and the far-right Vox in some territories. "Climate denialism is the worst fuel in the face of the climate emergency," Sánchez warned, recalling the more than 170,000 hectares burned since the beginning of the year.

Tellado closed his response by predicting that the next academic year will be that of "the elections of change" and the beginning of a "national reconstruction" led by Feijóo. "People don't want him to make assessments, they want him to confess, to say what he knows about his corruption and to leave," he assured.

The PP has been positioning each new government crisis as the end of the legislature for months. Sánchez reiterated this Tuesday that there is still one year left in his mandate and that he intends to reach the summer of 2027, the scheduled date for the next general elections.