FREE nursery school places, a clampdown on rocketing rent and a new labour reform are among the 370 points on acting president Pedro Sánchez's new programme plan, which he hopes will seduce left-wing Podemos into voting in his favour when he attempts to become invested as president.
The plan comes in six blocks and runs for 75 pages – 'Fair employment and pensions', 'Feminism, the fight against social inequality, and quality democracy', 'Climate emergency, environmental transition, farming and fishing', 'Scientific and technological progress and digital transition', 'Spain open to Europe and the world', and 'Territorial structure' are the headings of each block.
As well as ensuring free day-schooling and care for all children from birth to three years old, when they start infant school, and stopping rent prices spiralling upwards – especially in large cities – the PSOE (socialist) leader proposes to scrap a labour reform brought in by the previous right-wing PP-led government in 2012 which made it easier and cheaper for firms to fire staff or make them redundant.
He proposes a Penal Code reform in which 'only yes means yes' and 'anything else means no' in the case of rape or sexual abuse, and intends to improve the work-life balance for parents by equalling paternity and maternity leave at 16 weeks each on 100% of the mother's or father's salary.
Sánchez includes the so-called 'Google Tax' or 'Tobin Tax' in his document, plus a minimum company profit tax figure of 15% for large firms, rising to 18% for banks, and the creation of a 'green tax'.
One of Podemos' most-desired measures is for the soi-disant 'Public Safety Law', known popularly as the 'Gagging Law', to be abolished, meaning protests without written provincial government organisation, or taking photos or videos of police in the course of duty, would not be subject to fines of up to €30,000.
Sánchez has included this in his plans, as well as another of Podemos' desires – a minimum liveable income, meaning all those earning a wage, on a pension, on the dole or the sick, or not eligible for any contributory benefits will nevertheless receive a set monthly payment.
He says his main aim is to improve quality of life for 'vulnerable households', and to increase the amount the State pays families per child – currently €100 a month, but as a tax break, meaning they recover the money once a year.
The PSOE also wants to ban utility companies from cutting off electricity, gas and water for main residences due to non-payment where this is because the householder cannot afford the bills – although in practice, this is already becoming the norm in Spain and the principal power board, Iberdrola, does not stop supply without consulting social services first, and gives considerable warning to the customer.
Podemos was also calling for euthanasia to become legal, and Sánchez's programme is open to this.
Also, in line with the popular – but currently under threat – 'Madrid Central', or a traffic-free zone in the city centre to cut air pollution, Sánchez wants to create low-emissions areas in all towns of at least 50,000 inhabitants.
To try to get more women into professions typically dominated by men, the PSOE proposes a total exemption from tuition fees for the first year of university degrees in the STEM subjects (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) for female students where women on the course make up fewer than 30%.
Abolishing prostitution and fighting against human trafficking – by fining clients – and including IVF and other fertility treatments on the national health system are on the programme.
The PSOE also seeks to maintain the ban on surrogacy, which it considers to be an exploitation of women.
Even though there is a significant demand for surrogacy – among all-male couples, or women who cannot carry their own children for medical reasons – there is no support for it in any government party except in the centre-right Ciudadanos; its leader Albert Rivera, however, says it should only be legal if it is 'carried out altruistically', which is unlikely to prosper as few women would volunteer without some degree of financial compensation.
