Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez on Saturday announced a new package worth € 1.3 billion to strengthen vocational training amid record-high youth unemployment and with regional and general elections looming.
On Saturday, Sánchez (PSOE/S&D) spoke at a socialist rally in Pamplona (Basque Country, north)
“The future lies in education and in the management experience where we govern, ” he said, noting that education and vocational training need strengthening to reduce unemployment.
Spanish youth is facing serious difficulties in achieving economic independence due to precarious employment conditions and skyrocketing rental prices, with youth living with their parents until their 30s, a recent report by the NGO Ayuda en Acción revealed.
Regarding unemployment, Spain has the highest overall unemployment rate (12.8%) among OECD countries and boasts a much higher figure than the 6% EU average. Spain performs even worse for youth unemployment, which affects 29.3% of working people under 25.
The government will approve the special package on Tuesday, Sanchez said. With the package, the government intends to increase the number of bilingual vocational training vacancies in schools to 45,000, install 824 extra digital training centres, and set up 1,500 technology and entrepreneurship classrooms, among other things.
At the rally, Sanchez also defended the new housing law his government got through with the support of other regional parties.
“Reform is not about cutting back. It is not about attacking the social majority; it is not about causing pain. To reform is to dignify, and that is why we have dignified the minimum wage or working conditions, and we are going to do the same with the Housing Law: to dignify young people’s access to housing in our country”, he said.
At the same time, Sanchez also fiercely attacked his main centre-right and far-right rivals.
“The PP (Partido Popular/EPP) and VOX (ECR) are the two sides of the same coin: climate change denialism”, he stressed, referring to the controversy around the National Park of Doñana, which has pitted local fruit producers, environmentalists, and the region’s right-wing authorities in Andalusia against each other after a proposal to regularise illegal irrigation systems amid a severe drought.
Spain will hold regional and municipal elections on 28 May, with a general election expected to take place in December, during the country’s final month of presidency of the EU Council. (Fernando Heller | EuroEFE.EURACTIV.es)
More on the same topic…
HIV cases on the rise in Albania
Source: euractiv.com
