Spain’s Socialist Party signs progressive coalition pact with far-left Sumar

By Alyssa McMurtry

OVIEDO, Spain (AA) – Spain’s Socialist Party and the far-left Sumar party signed a coalition pact on Tuesday, which vows to bring Spain “a second wave of labor rights,” make environmental targets more ambitious, and boost public housing.

While the coalition government still falls short of a majority in Spain’s fractured parliament, signing this agreement is a critical step toward forming a government and avoiding fresh elections.

With this ambitiously progressive agreement, the Socialist Party successfully courted Sumar, led by Yolanda Diaz, after three months of negotiations.

One of Sumar’s key victories is earning the commitment of the more centrist Socialists to reduce the standard work week from 40 hours to 37.5 hours in 2024. With social dialogue, it could eventually be whittled down to 35 hours in the following years, all without workers losing pay.

“We are going to turn this legislature into the legislature of more free time for life, to make a better Spain and improve people’s lives,” said Diaz in a press conference. “The working people deserve respect.”

The coalition pact also promised to boost minimum wage, reinforce the healthcare system, expand healthcare to dental and optical work, increase maternity and paternity leave from 16 to 20 weeks, expand free childcare, and boost public housing up to 20% of the entire housing stock.

“None of this would be possible without a major fiscal overhaul. Big companies will pay 15% on their real earnings, not the earnings they say they earn after social engineering,” said Diaz.

She estimated that the new fiscal reform would bring in €10 billion ($10.6 billion) in annual tax revenue. She also announced that Spain will “reinforce” the windfall taxes on banks and energy companies because “we cannot afford to lose this income."

The coalition pact also vows to eliminate the so-called gag law enacted in 2015 to stifle anti-austerity protests, as well as make its 2030 emissions targets more ambitious.

While Spain’s left-wing bloc is still negotiating for the support of Catalan and other regional parties to gain the needed majority, Sanchez was confident the negotiations would succeed.

“We’ve governed for five years, and we’re going to do it again for four more years,” he said on Tuesday. “We need to consolidate what we have done and take more steps toward social justice, the well-being of the majority, economic prosperity, and environmental sustainability.”