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Pablo Iglesias has appeared in the Senate at the Commission on Social Rights to present his program of actions as responsible for the parcel of social services in the coalition Executive. In this sense, Iglesias, in addition to exalting and trying to leave the seal of Unidos Podemos in the minimum vital income that will be approved soon by the Council of Ministers, had a great issue to deal with: nursing homes, a major focus of infections and deaths in the coronavirus pandemic. The second vice president has discharged the responsibility for their management in the communities and has linked the improvements in these centers to the approval of the Government Budgets by Congress .

The Minister of Health, Salvador Illa, and the highest authority during the state of alarm, delegated the coordination of social services to Pablo Iglesias in mid-March. Nursing homes, shared responsibility with Health, would be included in this area. However, the second vice-president considers that the competition is autonomous. "The powers over the management of these centers correspond to the Autonomous Communities," Iglesias has clarified, criticizing that 75% of the centers, according to the data he has offered, are private and the cuts of recent years, putting the focus on PP management.

In a recent interview on TVE, the first vice president, Carmen Calvo, implicitly placed the responsibility of the nursing homes in Iglesias, recalling that the Government has a social vice-presidency "in which are the referenced social policies." His message was clear when asking for changes to guarantee care for the elderly: "This would have to be given an important twist; residences have to be better served, with more healthcare, with more specialties."

"The structural problems that have been dragging on for years and that are the ones that have been exposed as a result of Covid-19. It is necessary to undertake basic measures," was one of the explanations given about the impact of the virus in these centers, causing thousands of deaths. His solution: the government program agreed between the PSOE and United We Can, for which, he has warned, it is a necessary condition that Congress supports the Budgets of the coalition Executive. "Obviously, it will be necessary to make a significant effort in the General State Budgets," was his warning.

Among the measures to be undertaken in the future, despite having warned minutes before the competition was autonomous, are, among others, a quality accreditation program for nursing homes, as well as a commitment to "strengthen the financing of the attention to dependency, reversing the cuts, as well as improving the precarious conditions of workers in social services ".

Also the promise of reducing "drastically" waiting lists and increasing the "minimum level" with which the care of each dependent person is financed.

Authorship of the minimum vital income

The Social Vice President of the Government has taken advantage of his presence in the Senate to try to regain prominence in the implementation of the Minimum Vital Income in which the Ministry of Inclusion and Social Security works. Iglesias has anticipated that this aid will be approved "in the coming days" by the Council of Ministers. Iglesias has described this income as a "measure of enormous consensus." As this newspaper has advanced, the amount of the benefit will range from 462 euros per adult to a maximum of 1,015 euros per household.

Although the Minimum Vital Income is a proposal that Podemos has always defended, and that it has been including in its electoral programs, its authorship has been in dispute in recent weeks within the Government, with responsibility for its design and implementation falling underway at the Minister José Luis Escrivá. But Iglesias demands his copyright: "The Vice Presidency for Social Rights assumed the coordination of its design and the political and parliamentary impulse, in collaboration with the Ministry of Inclusion, of the implementation of this benefit that guarantees a minimum level of income for people at risk of social exclusion. "

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Know more

  • Pablo Iglesias
  • Salvador Illa
  • United We Can
  • PSOE
  • State's general budgets
  • Senate
  • Coronavirus
  • Covid 19
  • State of alarm
  • Lockdown
  • Lack of confidence

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