The Minister for Digital Transformation and Secretary General of the PSOE-M, Óscar López, has regretted that the former socialist president Felipe González has admitted that he will cast a blank vote in the general elections on November 29, although he has downplayed the electoral significance of this gesture and has assured that he does not believe it will harm the PSOE.
In an interview on TVE, Óscar López emphasized that Felipe González was “one of the most important presidents of this country” and defended that his time leading the Government represented “a very important period of modernization for the country.”
The minister also recalled that the PSOE did support the former president in “some moment of difficulty,” and pointed out that González’s criticisms of the Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, on other occasions “do not seem to have made a dent in the socialist voter.”
“Quite the opposite, I insist, in the last elections the PSOE gained a million votes,” López stated, referring to the results of the elections on July 23, 2023.
November 29 debates and rejection of media vetoes
Ahead of the November 29 election campaign, Óscar López reaffirmed the PSOE’s position regarding debates, and insisted that his party will not “veto” any media outlet, in contrast to what, in his opinion, the PP does with TVE.
“I find it intolerable, because this is public television, it is everyone’s television,” emphasized the minister, who recalled that in the 2023 elections there was already a ‘face-to-face’ debate on a private media outlet and another four-way debate with the leaders of PSOE, Vox, and Sumar, while the PP candidate, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, was absent.
For this reason, López advocated for repeating this formula in the November 29 campaign.
Criticism of the PP for a video generated with artificial intelligence
The minister also referred to the publication of a video generated with Artificial Intelligence (AI) by the PP, in which socialist officials and former officials appear, as well as the president’s wife, Begoña Gómez. In his opinion, identity impersonation is a “very serious” matter and a problem that the popular party itself could be affected by in the future.
“I find it extremely serious, because it is telling people a colossal lie and for a party to do it on its official accounts seems intolerable to me,” Óscar López stressed, warning that “it can affect us all” and that “it is very easy for a person who is not used to living with AI to confuse it with reality.”
Feijóo, the minimum wage and the Ministry of Equality
Óscar López has also expressed his concern about the statements by Alberto Núñez Feijóo, in which he believes the PP leader has questioned the right to abortion, euthanasia, and the increase in the interprofessional minimum wage (SMI).
“If we left the SMI in the hands of employers, it would not go up,” the minister assured, also rejecting the proposal to eliminate the Ministry of Equality. In his opinion, Feijóo proposes this measure because “they do not understand equality.”
