Fernando González Urbaneja| If we have to choose the highlights of Pedro Sánchez’s leadership trajectory, one of them would have to be the “No is No” (what part of this has not been understood?) It was his entry through the big door of political decisions by not enabling a new government after the first elections of 2016 with a tactical abstention, which mathematically blocked the forming of a parliamentary majority…
Fernando González Urbaneja | Quite a few (including two national newspapers) have applied the arithmetic template of Sunday’s results to a general election with a result that would be favourable to the grand coalition of the left/nationalists, headed and sponsored by Pedro Sánchez. In this case the PP would be the most voted party with 140 deputies (with VOX in retreat below 20 seats) while the PSOE would remain as…
Fernando Gonzéz Urbaneja | The expectation of a very tough six-month election campaign weighed on Sánchez’s conscience throughout the evening after the evidence of Sunday’s results. This explains why bringing forward the elections is tactical and opportunistic (in political logic), and also why Feijóo began his speech in front of the cameras with the words: “the sooner the better”. Better for the incumbent who defends the results of November 2019,…
Fernando González Urbaneja | Employers and unions have reached an income policy agreement on their own which is coherent with the previous ones signed during the last decades. There is no break in the social pact policy that accompanied Spanish democracy for decades. The agreement (a salary increase of 4% in 2023 and 3% in 2024) is indicative, a recommendation for decentralized collective bargaining, thousands of sector, province, company agreements……
Fernando González Urbaneja | The EPA for the first quarter of 2023 allows for different readings to suit all readers’ tastes. Employment fell slightly compared with the previous quarter, but grew by 370,000 compared with the previous year. Therefore, a certain slowdown in job creation, but with a target figure of 20.45 million employed, the highest figure in history. Compared with the previous quarter and the previous year, the data…
Fernando González Urbaneja | Ferrovial’s shareholders’ meeting passed with evident calm and a consensus materialised in 76% attendance and 93% of votes in favour of the decision to move the company’s headquarters to the Netherlands. All the dust that has swirled around the agreement to move the company’s head office has come to nothing for the company’s shareholders, who have validated the board’s proposal without criticism and without any rejection…
Fernando González Urbaneja | It is not often that a government directly confronts a business decision taken by a responsible collegiate body. And when it does happen, it is not often that the government ends up getting fleeced. The relationship of political power with any business, no matter how large, is usually asymmetrical, in favour of the executive. Businessmen avoid confrontation because even if they achieve their aims, they always…
Fernando González Urbaneja | Listening every day, every hour, to the statements of the ministers takes us to a happy world: everything is going well; everything is historic; impressive achievements. But with the coda that the PP and Feijóo are the worst, capable of ruining everything. So much propagandist mumbo-jumbo that embraces the strategy of information flooding, pounding and pounding. The latest instalment corresponds to the public deficit data for…
Fernando González Urbaneja | The mini Cabinet reshuffle is irrelevant: two ministers are leaving, two more are coming in, and none of them will leave their mark on the government. Traditionally we call any change of government a crisis, but this latest one has no more to it than the convenience of the Socialist Party to embellish, at least in appearance, its electoral offer. Two ministers are leaving to head…
Fernando González Urbaneja ! The no-confidence motion against the government led by Ramón Tamames and promoted by the parliamentary group VOX will conclude this Wednesday with an unfavourable vote for the promoters and without major consequences, beyond two parliamentary sessions in which Sánchez has deployed the familiar arguments about the achievements of the government and the incompetence of the opposition, especially the one who was absent, namely Nuñez Feijóo. The…