Speaker 1: Bloomberg, Audio studios, podcasts, radio news.
Speaker 2: Prime Minister Spain thank you for talking to Bloomberg. It's
Speaker 2: a pleasure to have you. It's a pleasure. I just looked.
Speaker 2: Out of all Europe's leaders, you are the one who
Speaker 2: seems most prepared to disagree with President Trump. You champion
Speaker 2: the cause of recognizing Palestine, you push you pushed against
Speaker 2: the five percent limit on defense spending, also been very
Speaker 2: close to China. I mean, when you heard his speech yesterday,
Speaker 2: did you which seemed to depict Europe as kind of hellhole,
Speaker 2: did you think that was Do you think that was
Speaker 2: aimed at you?
Speaker 1: Well, I think i'm respectfully at disagree with President Trump
Speaker 1: a statement because you know, he took migration and climate change,
Speaker 1: as I would say, the.
Speaker 3: Major challenges that we have to fight against for.
Speaker 1: And I said, well, look, if you took the experience
Speaker 1: of his pain is the contrary. So thanks to claim
Speaker 1: to these green policies, we have dropped the electricity prices
Speaker 1: since twenty seventeen till now by fifty percent, so that
Speaker 1: enables us to gain competitiveness, and thanks to that, we
Speaker 1: are witnessing this extraordinary outcome of the economic growth in Spain,
Speaker 1: we represent thirty percent of the total economic growth of
Speaker 1: the European Union. And when it comes to migration, in
Speaker 1: the last seven years we have received two million migration migrants,
Speaker 1: while at the same time we have dropped by forty
Speaker 1: percent the unemployment rate.
Speaker 3: So only all, what.
Speaker 1: I'm trying to say is that green transition and migration
Speaker 1: when it comes on regular basis are positive for the
Speaker 1: economic development of a country.
Speaker 2: Do you think your fellow leaders in Europe could be
Speaker 2: braver about making those comments.
Speaker 1: I think that we that we need to keep Transatlantic
Speaker 1: bond and to strengthen that Transtalentic bond.
Speaker 3: It is in the.
Speaker 1: True that we need to combine it with other policies
Speaker 1: such as, for instance, trade diversification. That is why we
Speaker 1: are we've been very vocal in reaching this agreement between
Speaker 1: the European Union and Americasur, which it would be definitely
Speaker 1: a game changer in in our economic ties with other
Speaker 1: regions of the world. And second, what we do, what
Speaker 1: we need to do within the European Union is to
Speaker 1: do our homework, as the former central banker Maria Draghi
Speaker 1: always remind us, and that means that we need to
Speaker 1: deepen single market, that we need to review our competition
Speaker 1: policy in order to scale up a big companies in
Speaker 1: Europe and try to be you know, as good as
Speaker 1: competitive as a global corporation are in in the U.
Speaker 3: S and other and other parts of the World's.
Speaker 2: Very interesting that you look at what's happened. Your economy
Speaker 2: has grown very well two point seven percent. You look
Speaker 2: at what's happening in other countries on the periphery, like Greece,
Speaker 2: there is a very interesting thing. A few years ago
Speaker 2: we were used to saying the periphery is the problem
Speaker 2: and the core is great. Now it's the other way around. France, Germany,
Speaker 2: Britain barely growing at all. Do you think it is
Speaker 2: now the center of Europe that is the problem in
Speaker 2: the economy.
Speaker 3: No, not at all.
Speaker 1: I mean Germany is a big country, big economy, also France,
Speaker 1: and we always suspect a positive let's say, dynamic in
Speaker 1: their economy is that it isn't it true that from
Speaker 1: the south we can contribute to the economic growth of
Speaker 1: the European Union. So for instance, when you see that
Speaker 1: sixty percent of the electricity generation in Spain comes from
Speaker 1: renewable sources, that means that we have a potentiality that
Speaker 1: we can contribute to the autonomous static autonomy.
Speaker 2: Is exposing that you to France.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, okay, we need to interconnect better our greeds,
Speaker 1: but we are We're trying to convince our friends in
Speaker 1: France to do so. So only know what I'm trying
Speaker 1: to say is that if you see the economic figures
Speaker 1: of the self in Europe, especially Spain, that represents and
Speaker 1: as said before, thirty percent of the total economic outcome
Speaker 1: of economic outcome of the European Union. That means that
Speaker 1: we have achieved many reforms that were demanded by the.
Speaker 3: European Commission over the last years.
Speaker 1: So we have achieved to reform our labor market, our
Speaker 1: patient system, our educational system, and also our energy policy
Speaker 1: and digitalization, along with the contribution of migration. So it
Speaker 1: is true that these pillars also show that the economic
Speaker 1: background or pillars of Spain are quite solid if you
Speaker 1: compare to previous periods such as the one before the
Speaker 1: financial crisis.
Speaker 2: Also a selfish question from the point of view all
Speaker 2: the foreign investors looking at this, Many people want to
Speaker 2: invest in Spain for all the reasons you said, But
Speaker 2: you want to introduce one hundred percent tax on them
Speaker 2: if they want to buy a house there a second time.
Speaker 3: No, not at all, not at all.
Speaker 1: What we need to face is a real challenge that
Speaker 1: I think that across Europe and also in England in
Speaker 1: the UK you're suffering, especially the youth, but not only youth,
Speaker 1: which is the lack of or the impossibility to access
Speaker 1: to a house or to emancipate in the case of
Speaker 1: our youth. What we did is for all British people
Speaker 1: or European people that want to buy a house for living,
Speaker 1: they won't pay taxes.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but this is the point.
Speaker 1: We need also to understand that we need to solve
Speaker 1: a problem of housing that we have in Spain. But
Speaker 1: all in all, if you see now the figures of
Speaker 1: the real estate sector and how we are speeding the
Speaker 1: process of construction in Spain is quite amazing. Nowadays we
Speaker 1: have increased by sixty three percent construction of how let's say,
Speaker 1: public housing, whilst the private sector has increased the like
Speaker 1: thirteen percent during the last year.
Speaker 2: It's a bit about the relationship to the economy and politics.
Speaker 2: The economy seems to be going very well for you.
Speaker 2: In politics, it's harder your party is behind the Patty
Speaker 2: do popular. We also got Vox coming up this much
Speaker 2: more right wing outfits and in the current polls you
Speaker 2: would lose if the election. What do you think the
Speaker 2: problem is? You've got a good economy, unlike most other
Speaker 2: European prime ministers, and yet you're still behind.
Speaker 3: Pulls that polls. I mean, of course you have to
Speaker 3: look into it. You have to see.
Speaker 1: What I am defending is that unfortunately we're seeing not
Speaker 1: only in Spain but across Europe political collapse of the
Speaker 1: center right traditional parties, which by the way, it started
Speaker 1: after the financial crisis, with the failure of governments, with
Speaker 1: all this rhetoric of austerity UH, banking UH and the
Speaker 1: financial rescue that we had to pay with taxes all
Speaker 1: around Europe. And what you see now from the center
Speaker 1: right is that they are copying not only the way
Speaker 1: of doing politics of oi right, but also the contents.
Speaker 1: So you see now that they are like identifying migration
Speaker 1: with insecurity, which is a fake.
Speaker 3: It is not true.
Speaker 1: And and by the way, as I said before, when
Speaker 1: when you when when you see the figures in Spain,
Speaker 1: you can see that we had a we we have
Speaker 1: the contribution of migration, but at the same time, we're
Speaker 1: reducing unemployment rates in Spain and our sectors such as construction,
Speaker 1: agro industry, or social services or tourism, which in Spain
Speaker 1: are quite important. We're up to twenty thirty percent of
Speaker 1: the total workers comes from different countries and other Spain.
Speaker 1: So what we need to do is to face that
Speaker 1: we need migration. But for that migration, what we need
Speaker 1: to open is a path of regular migration. And this
Speaker 1: is what we are doing with many countries in Latin America,
Speaker 1: also with the US administration, with the previous administration, we
Speaker 1: reach a very interesting program in order to have this
Speaker 1: circular migration coming from the US and of.
Speaker 3: Course some countries in North Africa.
Speaker 1: But in all the contribution of migration to the economic
Speaker 1: growth in Spain is quite quite positive.
Speaker 2: A few bridling for that fight. So you will, you
Speaker 2: will definitely lead the Socialists in twenty twenty seven into
Speaker 2: the election.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I will do it, for sure.
Speaker 1: This is something that I have already spoken with by
Speaker 1: family and with by party, and if they allow me,
Speaker 1: I'm confident that we can repeat a majority and to
Speaker 1: keep the work ahead. Not but let me add, coming
Speaker 1: back to migration, that the dilemma that all Western societies
Speaker 1: we're facing is whether we open up and grow or
Speaker 1: we close off and shrink. This is the real dilemma
Speaker 1: that we need to face. So the challenge that we
Speaker 1: have within the Epean society is how do we integrate
Speaker 1: this migration.
Speaker 2: So you think it's easier in Spain because you've got
Speaker 2: a lot of people from Latin America where everyone speaks
Speaker 2: the same language, that that's at least part of the
Speaker 2: argument why you might.
Speaker 3: Have been better.
Speaker 1: So when you listen to some center right parties and
Speaker 1: the far right there saying not what we we need
Speaker 1: to expel all these migrants come into our Okay, So
Speaker 1: what we do with demographics, because either you have natalis
Speaker 1: how do you say family policies? Yes, class migration, but
Speaker 1: they don't propose anything in these two policies, no migrants
Speaker 1: and less welfare state and therefore less family policies. Uh,
Speaker 1: and that means social services, wealth, healthcare and social security
Speaker 1: and so on and so forth.
Speaker 3: So what I'm trying to say is that if we don't.
Speaker 1: Have this contribution of migration, what we will face in
Speaker 1: the coming years in Europe is that we have anest technicians.
Speaker 1: We don't we won't have the capacity to growth and
Speaker 1: therefore there would be more cuts in our welfare state.
Speaker 1: So so this is this is something that we need
Speaker 1: to explain to our citizens that if we particulate a
Speaker 1: positive migration policy, that would be for the good of
Speaker 1: the Europeans and the Western societies. So, just to give
Speaker 1: you a figure, ninety four percent of the total migrants
Speaker 1: that are living nowadays in Spain came from regular let's
Speaker 1: say systems, and they are they came on legal basis.
Speaker 1: So we're talking about only six percent and this is
Speaker 1: this is the reality. So I think that we need
Speaker 1: to fight and to give a positive, let's say message
Speaker 1: about the contribution of migration to our societies and to
Speaker 1: our prosperity.