"Repair the State, regenerate democracy, reunite the nation and recover Spain's ambition and self-esteem." These are the four main pillars of the PP's electoral program for the general elections of November 29, which Alberto Núñez Feijóo presented this Tuesday in Madrid.
"We are, probably, in the most momentous moment of the last 50 years in our country", because in these years "the four pillars on which the country rests have been weakened: the State, the power, the common nation and the Spaniards, on whom the idea has been imposed that we must resign ourselves to living below our means", the PP candidate underlined at said event.
One of the main novelties that remained to be known about the program was related to the minimum vital income (MIV). And, on the verge of a general strike, Feijóo has announced that, if he governs, he will create a new income that compensates for the current subsidies and is only justified as a "bridge to employment", because "the best social policy is the one that gives back to each person the ability to take care of themselves."
This is what the document specifies: "We will create an Activation Income that brings together the minimum vital income and subsidies in a single path to employment for those who can work. We will do so in collaboration with the autonomous communities and it will be compatible with employment from day one, so that accepting a job always improves the household income" and "the family situation."
How can the final nature of this income be guaranteed? "Each beneficiary will sign a training and job search agreement, with verifiable follow-up, and repeatedly rejecting suitable jobs without justified cause will have graduated consequences," explains the document presented this Tuesday. Which is it? "The loss of aid," said Feijóo.
"We will evaluate the employment services by the jobs they get. Anyone who cannot work due to disability or dependency will maintain specific protection, and child support will continue to be their own benefit," states the program, which advocates "a plan against fraudulent absenteeism from work."
EL MUNDO has advanced in recent days some of the main measures of the program. For example, the plan to strengthen the State in Catalonia, the Basque Country and Navarra; the reform of the State Lawyers' Regulations to prevent them from defending "particular interests"; the 'anti-Armengol law' so that norms cannot be frozen in Congress; the recovery of the National Bullfighting Prize; or the reform of the educational model so that it is not possible to pass a year with failures in ESO.
Another of the most topical points is the declaration of the National Police and the Civil Guard as "risk" professions. Above all, after the death, this Tuesday, of an agent due to the explosion of a backpack in Oviedo, after a shooting whose perpetrator remains on the run and armed. There is another injured police officer. In fact, at the event a minute of silence was observed for them and for the victims of the train accident in Urda (Toledo).
At the level of democratic regeneration, Feijóo has assured that no politician can exercise, from now on, a power that in the hands of another seemed "abusive." And he has promised to reform the figure of the petition so that "it can never translate into impunity."
"My Government will never pardon any politician convicted of corruption," he added, to applause from the PP leadership, before emphasizing that "those convicted of terrorism will have no place in our institutions" and "they will not be able to be honored."
Feijóo has promised that the Constitutional Court will no longer have magistrates who come from politics and will cease to be a body dedicated to correcting the Supreme Court. And he has reiterated that, if he reaches La Moncloa, "of course" the judges will elect the majority of the members of the General Council of the Judiciary.
In immigration matters, Feijóo has recalled that he will not "give away" nationality and has opted to toughen the laws to deter immigrants. Although it will also increase the number of people arriving to work in the construction sector. Above all, because it promises to promote a million homes.
The economy will return, in Feijóo's eyes, to orthodoxy, with Budgets every year, annual revaluation of pensions based on the CPI and less debt. Before all that, the PP will carry out an audit of all public spending: "There will be no carpet left to lift. No expenditure will be maintained due to its inertia, but rather due to its usefulness," he exclaimed. "Each new regulation must repeal three existing ones," he added.
"I am not going to make a right-wing Sanchismo" and "I will not take refuge in the inheritance received," he promised. What he finds in that audit "will not be the alibi" or the ruse in which to take refuge, he said. Feijóo has advocated "lowering the fiscal pressure" and making everything work "better" in two years, in 2028.
Before him, Alma Ezcurra, coordinator of the program, had a few words of remembrance for the late Pablo Vázquez, who was the one who began the preparation of the text even knowing that he would not be able to see its result. Ezcurra has assured that this program is "the revolution of us", and that "great transformations" are achieved with a clear moral mandate: "Manage well and without stealing and leave people in peace", he summarized.
