The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, and the leader of the opposition, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, inaugurated this Tuesday the political course with their first face-to-face confrontation, which was held in the Senate since the new president of the PP is not a deputy in The congress. Both leaders admitted the seriousness of the situation due to the energy crisis, derived in large part from the war in Ukraine, but this recognition did not translate into what would be expected, a pact between the two main political forces, which remain locked in the “and you more”. Both Sánchez and Feijóo offered to agree between them, but the whole development of the debate belied those good intentions.
The format did not favor the leader of the opposition and agreed with those in the PP who feared a “lock-in”, since the president had unlimited time while Feijóo had interventions limited to 15 minutes. For that reason alone, Sánchez had an advantage and faith that he used it to the fullest. In his first one-hour speech, he recognized the seriousness of inflation, the doubts about the evolution of the economy and the uncertainty derived from the lack of knowledge of what Vladimir Putin can do, and advocated European unity and solidarity in the face of “blackmail”. of the Russian president. He announced new measures for the winter, but “not dramatic” – neither power cuts nor butane rationing – and advanced the most relevant novelty, such as the inclusion of the large energy cogeneration industry in the Iberian exception.
Sánchez acknowledged that there is a risk of recession, although he said without great conviction that it would be short and not very deep, he detailed the Government’s achievements in employment and debt reduction, and began to make his first attacks on the PP, placing it alongside the powerful and accusing him of proposing recipes for a healer rather than a doctor.
But the confrontation rose in tone with a very harsh reply in which he reviewed all the mistakes made in economic matters by the leader of the PP and asked himself numerous times if they were due to insolvency or bad faith, to be answered half and half. In his speech, Feijóo had highlighted the bad data, such as inflation and the closure of companies, and, leaving the subject of the debate, reproached the division of the Government – he even asked Sánchez to fire the “ministers he has not appointed” –, the pacts with ERC and Bildu, the insults that the ministers dedicate to him and exposed the contradictions and errors of the Executive, such as the increase in the purchase of gas from Russia or having turned Algeria into an “energy enemy”. He asked the Prime Minister to break with his allies and lean on the PP, but always in a conditional way. “If you listen to us, you will have our support,” he said.
Sánchez raised the key question of why the Government and the PP do not reach agreements. He gave three reasons –lack of rigor of the PP proposals, which only seeks to overthrow the Government and does not want to agree because the “powerful forces it represents do not want it”–, but at no time did he admit what is also evidence: the lack of communication and information from the Government to the opposition. From then on, the debate led to an unfortunate competition over who insults whom the most and over the blockade that the PP exercises against the renewal of the judiciary.
The debate was a new missed opportunity to recover not only the good harmony, but the polite coexistence between the two most important political forces. Lucky for the European Union to set the rules of what must be done in the face of the seriousness of the moment and that the Government and the opposition must abide by, incapable of agreeing on anything.