Will Yolanda Díaz Run for President? Plus the Rise in Inflation, Abortion and Conscientious Objectors, and More
👩🏼 Second Deputy Prime Minister and Labour Minister Yolanda Díaz of Unidas Podemos is Working on a New Political Project for the Left to Run for the Presidency in 2023
Yolanda Díaz is Spain’s best-valued politician, according to the latest survey carried out by the Spanish Center for Social Research (CIS). However, coming in at 4,6 points, she stands below the passing threshold. The truth is that very few to no political leaders manage to pass, which speaks volumes of what we Spaniards think of our political class.
Born in Galicia in 1972, Yolanda Díaz acted as a labour lawyer before being appointed minister of labour and social economy in the current coalition government formed by the socialist PSOE and by the junior partner Unidas Podemos, a left coalition formed by Podemos and Izquierda Unida (United Left), the party Díaz belongs, to run in the 2019 election. A year later, she was also named second deputy prime minister. She still holds a membership card to the Spanish Communist Party.
It is easy to understand why she is more cherished than other front-line politicians. Shortly after taking office, she raised the minimum wage —one of the lowest in Europe— to €950 and €965 last month. During the worst of the Covid-19 pandemic, when millions of people lost their jobs and millions more found themselves on the brink of joblessness, she and her team managed to strike a deal with the Spanish employers’ association (CEOE) and Spain’s main unions (UGT and CCOO) to create the ERTE furloughing scheme, which will remain in force until February 2022.
Diaz’s political dexterity and resolve, as well as her firm commitment to dialogue with anyone about anything —she is also sitting at the negotiating table with the pro-independence Catalan regional government— have turned her into a popular politician and into Unidas Podemos’ safest bet to reach La Moncloa, Spain’s seat of government.
During an interview on Thursday with the Cadena Ser radio network, Díaz said she is working on a new political project ahead of the next general election, due in 2023, that would gather all political parties to the left of the socialists under the same name. While Díaz has not confirmed nor denied that she will run for president, her fellow party members in Unidas Podemos take it for granted. “I’m working on it,” she said, “and holding lots of conversations.” However, she pointed out that the project should not be about political parties or personal projects. “I’m surrounded by egos. If there is a lot of noise, I would probably leave,” she warned.
So what is the project about? Still unnamed, it is meant to inspire hope in people. “Society at large will be at the centre […] People are waiting for us. I want them to tell us how they see Spain and what ask them what they would do to improve it, something that is not being done.”
Let’s wait and see if this promising project becomes a reality. Meanwhile, some party officials from the People’s Party consider Díaz “a first-rate electoral phenomenon.” Even the opposition holds her in high regard.
The Economy
📈 Inflation Increases in Spain
Inflation increased in September by 4%, according to the Spanish National Statistics Institute (INE), the steepest rise since 2008, when Lehman Brothers unleashed a global financial crisis. It has been on an upward trend for seven consecutive months, pushed by soaring electricity prices —this week prices have broken yet another record and now stands at 216€/mwh—, as well as fuels and gas prices, but also by the recovery in consumption.
This will affect the Consumer Price Index (CPI)—a statistical measure of the evolution of the prices of goods and services consumed by the population that reside in family dwellings in Spain— as well as pensions. On the other hand, there is growing pressure to increase the salaries of civil servants, which is causing friction between the partners of the coalition government regarding the General State Budget for 2022.
🏘 A Housing Draft Bill
Unidas Podemos, along with eight other parties, including ERC, Bildu and Más País, registered a draft bill on housing in the Congress of Deputies regulating rent prices, banning evictions, and penalizing empty houses. The move is meant to pressure the socialists to include the future Housing Law in the General State Budgets (PGE). While the PSOE has insisted that the Housing Law will be approved, it has been delayed on several occasions, the sticking point being the capping of rent prices.
What does the new draft bill propose?
Within 20 years, municipalities with the highest demand for housing should offer at least 20% of social housing.
Rent prices must be capped in stressed areas where the average rent exceeds 30% of the tenant's income. From there, municipalities could set maximum rental prices, based on the consumer price index.
The third most controversial proposal allows city councils to apply a surcharge on empty houses owned by big property investors, as well as to ban evictions of people in a vulnerable position if there is no housing alternative, a formula that has been working during the Covid-19 pandemic.
💰 This is What the Government Has So Far Generated from the Google and Tobin Taxes.
The Tax on Digital Services, dubbed the Google Tax, entered into force on January 16, 2021. The government expected to generate €968 million during the first year to support sectors most affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, but according to a report published on Thursday by the Spanish Tax Agency so far it has collected €92. The tax levies 3% on services such as online advertising, online intermediation, and the sale of user-generated data, and affects companies with a global turnover of over €750 million and revenues in Spain of more than €3 million.
The Google Tax is similar to taxes already implemented in other European countries such as Germany, France or Belgium, which imposes levies on internet aggregators for linking to media content that is protected by intellectual property rights.
In January, the financial transaction tax or Tobin tax also came into force and was expected to generate €850 million. However, it has only been able to collect €185 so far. As with the Google Tax, it had to be delayed twice because of regulatory loose ends. This tax levies 0.2% on the purchase and sale of shares of Spanish companies with a market capitalization of more than €1,000 million and must be paid by the financial intermediaries that carry out the acquisition.
Society
🙍🏼♀️🙍🏻♂️Perception of Gender Violence Among Young People
One in five young men believes that gender-based violence does not exist, that it is an "ideological invention," according to the Youth and Gender Barometer 2021 carried out by the Reina Sofía Center for Adolescence and the Foundation to Fight Against Drug Addiction (FAD), a percentage that has doubled with respect with the previous barometer released in 2017.
Researchers interviewed 1,200 people between 15 and 29 years of age on areas related to gender differences and inequalities, identities, affective experiences, and perceptions of inequality between men and women.
In the last four years, there has been "great progress regarding traditional views of gender and the fight for equality", although these are changes that have occurred in an "uneven" manner between the girls and boys.
Feminist sentiment increased by more than 20% among young women: 46.1% defined themselves this way in 2017, compared to 67.1% who do so now.
Gender violence is considered more "a serious social problem" —74.2% compared to 72.4% four years ago.
Among boys, the number of those who consider themselves feminists has increased by nine points: from 23.6% in 2017 to 32.8% in 2021. However, the percentage of those who see sexist violence as a serious problem has decreased, going down from 54.2% in 2017 to just over 50% in 2021.
❌ Conscientious Objectors and Abortion in Spain
Since 2010, women in Spain can get an abortion for free in all public hospitals up until 14 weeks, but many doctors refuse to perform them. The Spanish government is revising its laws to make sure it is enforced across the country. They also have the legal right to abort up to the 22nd week of pregnancy in cases where the mother’s health is at risk or the foetus has serious deformities.
However, many doctors across Spain refuse to practice abortions, calling themselves “conscientious objectors”. According to data from the Health Ministry, in five out of the 17 autonomous regions in Spain abortions are not offered on public hospitals, forcing thousands of women to either travel to another region or to pay for an abortion in a private clinic.
Only 6.2% of the nearly 100,000 abortions performed annually in Spain are taking place in public hospitals, while a further 8.12% are being done at specialized centers that are part of the public system. Most are being performed at subsidized private clinics.
The minister of equality, Irene Montero, has proposed a reform of the current law that would limit doctors being able to refuse the procedure.
“Conscientious objection cannot be an obstacle for women to exercise their right to terminate a pregnancy,” Montero said in a tweet. “We must reform the law to regulate it and make sure abortion is guaranteed in the public health system.”
Montero said the draft law would be ready in December after a consultation process. But she has already found opposition in the president of Madrid’s regional government, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, who said she would not force “any doctor in Madrid’s public health system to practice an abortion against their will” because doctors study medicine “to save lives and not to do the opposite”.
Last week the governing Socialist Party (PSOE) introduced a proposal in Congress that was backed by all parties, save for the Popular Party (PP) and the far-right Vox, to penalize the harassment of women outside abortion clinics.