A little later than the children, but finally the holidays have arrived for the politicians. At least for those on the front line. This Thursday the last plenary session was held in the Senate of this period of sessions that started in February. Six months that have gone a long way – less than expected for some, yes – and that have served the two government parties to disagree, agree, applaud each other and block some other legislative initiative. The Lower House has been the main scene of the scuffles between socialists and purples and, also, at the last minute, of a reunion to close this parliamentary course.
If the threat of rupture in the coalition – mentioned so many times – has had some glimpse of reality has been, in the vast majority of cases, due to the clashes that PSOE and United We Can have carried out in the corridors of Congress, debated in the commissions and aired from the tribune of speakers. The question of Occidental Sahara wave Audiovisual Communication Lawamong others, have managed to stretch the seams of the alliance to the maximum, which, later, have needed more stitches.
However, if this session were a story, it could be said that it had an unexpected and (rather) happy ending for the coalition partners. The intervention of Pedro Sánchez in the debate on the state of the nation served for the purples to reconcile with the president of the Government. The measures announced by the chief executive –taxes on banks and electricity companies and free Renfe subscriptions– They served to calm the purples, strengthen the coalition and recover the pulse of the progressive bloc.
One shock after another
But until arriving here, the allies have seemed in more than one moment opponents. One of the most notorious clashes began in March at the expense of Sánchez’s turn regarding Western Sahara, by recognizing Morocco’s autonomy proposal on this territory. United We Can joined the criticism of all the groups inside and outside the Hemicycle and came to present a non-law proposal to ratify the need to support the United Nations resolutions on this matter. The initiative declined due to the inability to reach an agreement with the Socialists.
This was not the only friction. Not the loudest. Just a few weeks later, the coalition experienced an unprecedented moment in the two and a half years of legislature: United We Can abstained in the vote on the Audiovisual Communication Law, issued by the Council of Ministers itself, breaking the voting discipline for the first time. The reason was an amendment surreptitiously introduced by the PSOE that benefited the big television corporations.
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Another PSOE amendment, in this case to toughen the crimes of pimping and locative third party, endangered the law of ‘only yes is yes’. The socialists ended up withdrawing it, fearing that the norm would end up falling. Days later they presented the same amendment converted into a bill that fractured United We Can. Podemos and IU voted in favor of debating it and the deputies of En Comú Podem voted against after receiving freedom to vote.
stop the purple
And where the differences between the two partners have been most noticeable has been in the bills presented by United We Can. The PSOE has voted in this period of sessions against all the legislative initiatives that the purples have taken to the Lower House. Six, in all. The Socialists have prevented the creation of a tax on large companies, the launch of a public energy company, a new mining lawa proposal for concerted schools go to the public circuita reform of the regulations of Congress to be able to use the co-official languages and an initiative to regulate the price of housing promoted by social groups.