For the first time, the Head of State has faced the unprecedented situation of having two applicants to be nominated
The intrigue is over. Felipe VI has proposed Alberto Núñez Feijóo as candidate for the investiture as Prime Minister. The president of Congress, Francina Armengol, has announced that the head of state, after probing the political parties, has considered that the leader of the PP is the one who has the best chance at this time to gain the confidence of the lower house. However, Feijóo himself has admitted an hour before that he has the support of Vox, CC and UPN -172 deputies in total- and that he is four seats short of the absolute majority required.
The president of the PP, as he assured in a press conference in Congress after his audience with the monarch, conveyed to Felipe VI his “willingness to be a candidate for the investiture.” The leader of the conservatives has explained that this step is due to the fact that it is the “candidate of the party that has won” the elections since it has the support of “four formations that added their deputies total 172 deputies”.
This figure would not serve him for an absolute majority, which is at 176 seats. “My distance for a government would be only four deputies,” Feijóo admitted before criticizing that the PSOE is “an amnesty, an independence referendum and making official the inequality of the Spaniards.” Thus, he has thanked all the formations that have supported him. He has devoted special attention to Santiago Abascal, lowering the level of demands that the Vox leader has put on the table hours before in exchange for his support.
Sánchez and the “possible majority”
Feijóo is not the only one who wanted to take this step. After his meeting with the monarch at the Palacio de la Zarzuela, Pedro Sánchez explained that he sees himself in a position to close the necessary agreements to be invested again as Prime Minister. In this sense, he recalled that on August 17, when the Parliament was constituted, the Socialists achieved a majority of 178 deputies -two more than necessary- so that their candidate, Francina Armengol, was elected president of the lower house. In this sense, she believes that this same arithmetic could be revalidated, which requires the support of Add, CKD, together, EH Bildu, GNP and BNG. At the moment, only Yolanda Díaz has confirmed her express support for her.
“There is only a possible parliamentary majority, a progressive majority led by the PSOE. There is no other alternative than to reissue a government of progress,” he stated at a press conference from Moncloa. Although he has assured that he will support and abide by the decision that Felipe VI finally adopts, Sánchez has said that Feijóo has a “ceiling of supports” established at 172 ‘yes’, which is insufficient. “I would be a failed investiture“He stressed before pointing out that” if Mr. Feijóo, after 23-J and 17 August, wants to come face to face with a reality emanating from the polls, he is within his right.
Abascal’s turn
Before Sánchez and Feijóo, it was Santiago Abascal’s turn with the monarch. The Vox leader has transferred to Felipe VI his willingness to have his 33 deputies vote ‘yes’ in a hypothetical investiture of Feijóo, but “conditional” to the PP “Do not collaborate in any way, by action or omission, in the cordon sanitaire that is intended to be raised against Vox“In this sense, he referred to the clash between the two formations last Thursday during the constitution of the Cortes, when they were unable to reach an agreement and the popular left Vox out of this body.
This is not the only demand of the ultra leader. He has also stated that Feijóo must “value, publicly, the agreements reached by PP and Vox in five autonomies and in more than 100 municipalities, disavowing those who attack and question them permanently”. Finally, he has demanded that “the neutrality of institutions and democratic normality” and that the “pretension of some minorities to impose apartheid” on their voters be ended.
Beyond these demands, Abascal has assured that he is offering his votes to the PP to try to prevent Sánchez from revalidating the Government. As he explained, in his conversation with Felipe VI he expressed his concern “over the fact that, once again, the heirs of terrorism and, on this occasion, also a fugitive from Justice are trying to condition the future of Spain.” The ‘yes’ of the ultras could thus be added to the one they have already expressed UPN and Canarian Coalition in his audiences with the King. Feijóo, who will see the monarch at the beginning of the afternoon, will be able to put on the table the support of 172 deputies. Although they are insufficient for an absolute majority -176 seats- they would be more than those confirmed at this time by the acting President of the Government.