Half truths, statements without context and misleading or false statements. The investiture debate in which Pedro Sánchez has once again been elected president of the Government of Spain has not been free of misinformation. This has been confirmed by the Verificat fact-checking teamwhich has been verifying the interventions of the deputies during these two days of debate.
In his initial speech, Pedro Sánchez defended his work at the head of the government, ensuring that Spain has improved its position “in all democratic quality rankings” in the last five years. However, although it is true that in this period Spain has risen in the ranking of the V-Dem Institutealso has dropped three places in the democracy index The Economist and 20 in the Freedom Housethree of the most influential and recognized entities internationally.
The socialist leader also took advantage of his intervention to attack the PP and Vox, whom he accused of having voted “systematically against” of measures such as increase in minimum wage olto labor reform. However, although it is true that both parties voted against labor reformit was not the case of the increase in the minimum wage, since The SMI is set by the government by royal decree and does not need the approval or validation of Congress.
The demands for an electoral repetition came to the debate through Alberto Núñez Feijóo. “Why don’t they let the Spaniards vote at the polls?” he asked the socialist bench. What the popular omitted is that an acting president, as Sánchez was at that time, cannot dissolve the Cortes Generales. Furthermore, once invested, he must wait one year from the call of the last elections to be able to call the polls again.
Aznar’s pardons
The leader of the PSOE, for his part, reproached the popular ones who Former president José María Aznar pardoned “members of Terra Lliure sentenced for terrorism”. What Sánchez also did not explain is that, although it is true that Aznar approved those 16 pardons, The process was started by Felipe González at the request of the National Court.
The socialist Patxi Lopez He also reproached the PP bench for “in a single day” Aznar pardoned 1,443 “without alleging a single reason of general interest.” Aznar’s government, however, justified that decisionannounced on December 1, 2000, for the Vatican’s request “that on the occasion of the jubilee year gestures be made in favor of social reintegration”, as well as the anniversary of the Constitution and the proximity to the end of the millennium. Some arguments that, yes, were criticized.
There were also claims that were not new. Feijóo reproached Sánchez for saying that he would not “sleep peacefully with Podemos in the government.” However, what the socialist said actually in those famous statements is that “I wouldn’t sleep” If the ministries of Finance, Energy Transition or Social Security fell to those of Pablo Iglesias. The three wallets finished in the hands of the PSOE. Another statement that the leader of Sumar repeated, Yolanda Diaz, is that the Constitution states thatpensions must be revalued “in accordance with the CPI.” However, although the Magna Carta says that they have to be “periodically updated”, does not mention the CPI.
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Sánchez also gave misleading economic data. Regarding his mandate, he stated that there are 2.3 million more employed people, although the increase is 1.8 million, according to data from Social Security affiliation. There are 2.7 million more if we compare it with the worst moment of the pandemic. Furthermore, he criticized that, under Feijóo’s presidency, the public debt of Galicia “grew 226%”, but the increase was 50 percentage points less (176%) and, during this time, Galicia went from being the sixth most indebted community with respect to GDP to being the sixth least indebted.
Regarding climate change, Sánchez boasted of having managed to reduce the “Emissions of greenhouse gases by 14%, with the economy growing.” It is true that gross emissions decreased by 13.7% between 2017 and 2021, according to the latest data from the Ministry of Ecological Transitionbut It must be taken into account that the general trend in recent years has been downward and that the pandemic contributed to this decline. In fact, in 2021 emissions suffered a rebound of 6.1% and, according to ministry forecastsin 2022 they have also increased.