Díaz to Junts after rejecting the reduction in working hours: "I have limits and I won't give up my country."

Second Vice President and Minister of Labor, Yolanda Díaz , stated this Thursday that she had been working with Junts for months to push through the reduction in working hours to 37.5 hours per week, but warned the Catalan party that in negotiations, "absolute conditions, everything, cannot be imposed."

" I have limits, not red lines, and I'm not going to give up my country, " the vice president said, not revealing the content of what was being negotiated with Carles Puigdemont's party, although she did say that she was asking for "things outside" the text being negotiated.

" It also happened to me with the labor reform . I was negotiating a text with good measures for Spanish companies and workers, and they talked to me about issues that were beyond my control, but I think the political party itself has said it, that it is the political situation that prevents progress on many things (...) The political climate sometimes places itself outside the walls of many negotiations," the vice president acknowledged.

Díaz stated in an interview with Onda Cero that she is fully aware of the parliamentary logic and the number of seats each party has. "But what you have to do is negotiate and not impose conditions on the absolute, the whole (...) Negotiating is negotiating; it's not about having a position of strength in which you believe you hold the key, and that key gives you the right to do whatever is necessary," she added.

When asked if Junts was trying to "blackmail" the government in the negotiations for the 37.5-hour work week , Díaz said that what the Catalan party did yesterday was "make a political mistake" by denying workers a measure "won in the streets" and that most of its voters want, reports Europa Press.

"I've never stated that Junts was part of the progressive bloc, and I don't think anyone spoke to Junts the way I did yesterday. There's an investiture bloc. Is the PNV a progressive, left-wing political party? No, but can we negotiate with the PNV? Of course. Can we negotiate with Junts? Of course. Can we negotiate with Esquerra? Of course. With the PP? I'd love to negotiate with the PP, but on specific things. Negotiating is negotiating," he noted.

Asked if any member of the government was bothered by the tone she used yesterday when addressing Junts, Díaz simply said that "there was a certain confusion in the chamber." "It was like confusion because we were discussing extremely important issues in a debate that was lost," added the minister, who, in any case, believes that yesterday opened the door to further negotiations with Junts on reducing working hours.

Regarding Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez's absence from the debate , the Minister of Labor stated that Sánchez's attendance was "not planned." Díaz stated that the Socialist wing of the government did not ask him to withdraw the bill on reducing working hours so that it would not be voted on in Congress.

"The Socialist bloc was enthusiastic yesterday. This debate yesterday is key to people's lives, and the voters of the PP, Junts, PSOE, Sumar—no matter the political party—want this to happen. It's very difficult not to feel support when this measure has been won in the streets. There's no going back," he stressed.

For the minister, the responsibility for Congress's yesterday's rejection of "a law that improves the lives of 12.5 million workers" lies not with her or the government, but with those who voted against it, and she believes this decision will cost the PP, Junts, and Vox dearly at the polls.

The minister has also been highly critical of the PP, which had promised to hold a meeting with her before the holidays to discuss reducing working hours, but Genoa issued a "call to order" and prevented the meeting from taking place.

"This is a brutal mistake. That the main opposition party doesn't sit down and talk with a vice president, in a key rule," he criticized, pointing out that when the reduction in working hours in Congress fell through on Wednesday, the PP party was "serious" and "didn't applaud" because they are aware that there are "12.5 million people" who know that the PP "has screwed them over."

Following these words, the PP's deputy secretary of the economy, Juan Bravo , published a message on the social network X in which he accused Díaz of lying. "It won't surprise anyone, but Yolanda Díaz has lied again. She said that they called us recently to negotiate a reduction in working hours and we left them in the lurch. I insist, like her measures: they are lies," he maintained.

Regarding Bravo's response, the minister warned that "where there is paperwork, the beards are silent," indicating that she can prove that the PP offered her "a date in July" and that she was urged by letter to meet with the Ministry of Labor on several occasions.

"I do want my cabinet to publish the letters with the entry and registration, but I don't like doing these things. Of course, where there are documents, the beards are silenced," he insisted, lamenting that despite having requested it on "numerous occasions," the PP "has not had the institutionality" to sit down and negotiate the reduction of working hours.

Regarding whether the government will finally present the 2026 General State Budget, Díaz indicated that the Prime Minister has said so and that the Treasury is working on it. "Our political position is that, in addition to fulfilling a constitutional mandate, we must politically do this," she emphasized.