• 23-J Feijóo asks the PP to lower expectations so as not to demobilize its electorate
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The electoral program of the PP will include the commitment to "co-finance" early childhood education throughout Spain, from zero to three years. It is a measure in line with the one approved by Alberto Núñez Feijóo when he was president of Galicia. Then, in 2021, the Xunta began to cover the entire cost of nurseries, and from the first child. For what? To encourage the birth rate in a community with a huge demographic problem.

Now Feijóo proposes to extend that philosophy to the rest of autonomies. But the Central Administration would not pay for the measure 100%, from the start, but the Government would negotiate with each autonomous community the percentage of funds, depending on the birth problems of each of them.

In the most populated cities that have a shortage of public nurseries, such as Madrid, the prices of private centers touch – or even exceed – 500 euros per month. In this community, a bonus of 130 euros per month is given to those who stay outside the public network. But, even so, a family with three children and an average income finds it impossible to cover these expenses, in Madrid and in many other cities where reconciling is not only difficult, but also very expensive. And this contributes - along with many other socioeconomic factors - to discouraging the birth rate.

Work-life balance and equality

In his speech at the fifth edition of Santander Women Now, in Madrid, Feijóo stressed that the PP will carry in its electoral program initiatives so that fathers and mothers can combine their professional development with the care of children, and promised to fight against the gender wage gap, especially in what affects women mothers. "The data is there, men and women are ascending to the professional career quite evenly until the first child arrives. It cannot be that women should choose between their professional careers or being mothers, "said the leader of the main opposition party, who has set himself the task for a hypothetical Government that motherhood stops being a glass ceiling in companies.

Feijóo wants to "ensure that in Spain the female activity rate is the same as the male activity rate, which is 10 points higher." "More women in employment means more economically independent women and more free women. That is working for real equality," he said.

In this context, Feijóo has explained his star measure: the PP will introduce in its program for the general "education from zero to three years free in the whole of Spain, with financing between the General Administration of the State and the autonomous communities, to favor conciliation and to offer adapted working hours ". "It is about providing Spaniards with the power to be fathers, mothers, without giving up their career," he said.

If he governs, Feijóo wants to promote an equality "that does not pit" one against the other. "This idea of common space is something consubstantial to majority feminism, parking what separates and accentuating how much unites us," he said, before calling for an "activism without labels", in the face of the "misappropriation of social demands" by any party. In his opinion, some, like Podemos, "cannot stand that there are neutral spaces, where people of different ideologies work for a common good."

  • Politics
  • General Elections
  • Alberto Núñez Feijóo
  • PP

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