Cándido Méndez lashes out at Spain's PSOE: a turning point for the unions?

Cándido Méndez tears into the PSOE on 'Espejo Público': rupture or theatre?

UGT general secretary Cándido Méndez appeared this week on Antena 3's morning show to attack Pedro Sánchez's government. The union leader, traditionally aligned with Spain's Socialist Party (PSOE), used his airtime to denounce the "abandonment of the working class" and the "neoliberal drift" of Socialist policies. A shift that has ruffled antiestéticathers and feeds suspicions among those who see the unions as a satellite of the party in power.

368 million euros in subsidies since 2021

The hard numbers explain the discontent. According to available information, UGT and CCOO have received 368 million euros in public funding since 2021. A figure some analysts interpret as the reason for the unions' silence during the first years of the legislature. Now, with the freezing of certain regional budget lines in regions where Vox has entered coalition governments, the numbers no longer add up. "When they mess with their trough, they get angry," sources close to the debate sum up.

Theatre to save credibility?

The question hanging in the air: is this a real change or a show? Recent history shows that the major unions have avoided calling a general strike against Sánchez, something unusual for a prime minister who has passed labour and pension reforms. Méndez himself knows that without the PSOE at La Moncloa, the prime minister's residence, the funding tap closes. That is why some see this public criticism as an attempt to win back lost members, especially among workers disillusioned with the government's economic management.

The irony peaks when you remember that, barely two years ago, UGT and CCOO signed the labour reform with the government. Now, the same voice that praised the deal accuses the PSOE of "betraying workers". Whatever the truth, the show is on. As the old saying goes: the shrimps don't pay for themselves.