A few days ago, at the PSOE headquarters in Ferraz, our Secretary-General and Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, together with two historic former socialist presidents, Felipe González and José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, inaugurated the exhibition '40 years of democracy, 40 years of progress', to commemorate the anniversary of the 1982 electoral victory.
Through this initiative, we have had the opportunity to remember the great transformations that our country has experienced during these last four decades with socialist governments. At the event, Pedro Sánchez said a few words that made me reflect and moved me, since they just summarized what made many of us join this political project.
Undoubtedly, any society needs a Government that offers solutions and puts all public resources at the disposal of people, since only equal opportunities will make us free to continue advancing. We did it in 1982, with a resounding victory, where we carried out a large investment in infrastructure and improved health and education, among others; and we continue to do so today, promoting all those measures that allow us to be more resilient in the future and in all areas.
Right now we are in the process of debating some General Budgets that include the largest social spending and productive investment to make Spain, and the Canary Islands, a fairer, more advanced and productive country.
These accounts include a revaluation of pensions in accordance with the CPI, around 8.5%, which will benefit more than 10 million pensioners and, specifically, more than 375,000 Canary Islanders. Because without a consolidated public pension system it is not possible to maintain the welfare state.
Pensions will increase by an average of 100 euros per month and, thanks to the package of fiscal measures also included in the new Budgets, for a retiree with a payment of 16,500 euros, this improvement will mean savings of approximately 680 euros, 47% compared to what they pay so far.
Some have described this measure as electoralist. Precisely, those who defended the model that applied an increase of 0.25%, that is, one euro per month, and that placed more than one million retirees at risk of poverty; causing, in turn, a void in the pension fund between 2012 and 2017.
Yes, that Popular Party, now led by Núñez Feijóo, who even in these times and with all the adversities we are facing, returns to its old recipe of cuts and austerity for the working class, and tax gifts for the upper classes.
However, the PSOE is once again defending a recovery and transformation project, which takes into account the entire social spectrum, in line with what Spain needs to continue growing. A Socialist Party that has a country project, and that is open to dialogue with all formations, without exception, to seek consensus and be able to look to the future with optimism.
We socialists are demonstrating, in all the communities in which we govern, that it is possible to do politics in harmony and unity with the different formations, social and economic agents, administrations, unions and employers to reach agreements and overcome any adversity that may arise.
And we will continue to demonstrate it. Sometimes it is necessary to put aside our political differences, legitimate and understandable, but which have no place when what is at stake is the present and the future of a society.
