Moncloa asks Podemos to “look high” and not “look at the navel” in the war in Ukraine

taketonews

03/04/2022 at 17:42

CET


For now, the fracture is within the space of United We Can, but it logically affects the whole of the Government. The decision to send weapons bilaterally to Ukraine has aroused the anger of the party that Pablo Iglesias founded, which has marked very clear distances with the second vice president, Yolanda Díaz, backed in turn by the commons – a group to which the head of Universities belongs , Joan Subirats, and the president of the confederal group in Congress, Jaume Asens— and by the Minister of Consumer Affairs, Alberto Garzón. The president defended the decision in Congress on Wednesday, yesterday Thursday he stressed that Spain is “where it should be”, in the “forceful” response to Ukraine and this Friday the spokeswoman for the Executive called for “high-mindedness”. A clear message to Podemos.

The tensions in the purple space remain unhealed, because Díaz continues to show his support for Pedro Sánchez, while you minister Ione Belarra and Irene Montero they insist that sending lethal equipment to the Ukrainians is an “ineffective” measure which increases the risk of war escalation. The three of them, plus Garzón and Subirats, shared this Friday an extraordinary meeting of the Council of Ministers. Rodríguez did not dwell on the differences so as not to reveal the deliberations of the Cabinet, but he did reiterate the “unity of the Government”, which is expressed “with one voice“, which is that of the president, who directs foreign policy.

That was already a first warning to Belarra and Montero, but it was even more resounding in the second response to the press that the spokeswoman gave. He first recalled that the Executive is “united by practically the same values than the vast majority of Spanish society and, of course, the political groups” that supported him last Wednesday in Congress: the rejection of the attack and invasion by Russia, the support for the Ukrainian people and the “desire for a soon restoration of peace”.

Díaz, Garzón and Subirats, as well as the common ones, support the president in sending lethal equipment, while Belarra and Montero reject the measure due to the risk of escalation

That was already a first warning to Belarra and Montero, but it was even more resounding in the second response to the press that the spokeswoman gave. He first recalled that the Executive is “united by practically the same values than to the vast majority of Spanish society and, of course, to the political groups” that supported him last Wednesday in Congress: the rejection of the attack and invasion by Russia, the support for the Ukrainian people and the “I wish for the speedy restoration of peace”.

But then Rodríguez issued that warning addressed to Podemos and, specifically, to ministers Montero and Belarra, who have repeatedly expressed their rejection of sending offensive weapons to Kiev over the past three days. “We are facing a challenge of great magnitude, facing a situation in the context of international politics so great, that staring at our navel and being at home doesn’t seem the most important thing —he answered—. Here you have to be with height and greatness of vision“. That is “the attitude of the Government”, he stressed, an attitude that Sánchez is “leading in the European and NATO context” to forge “a response unit to this unprecedented aggression against the Ukrainian people“.

Not at the “ministerial level”

From Moncloa they clung to the duty of keeping the deliberations of the Council of Ministers secret so as not to reveal whether the ministers expressed their discomfort during this Friday’s meeting. But in the president’s team they did point out that both, Montero and Belarra, have expressed their disagreement with the bilateral delivery of weapons “in the sphere of their party, but not at the ministerial level”.

The spokeswoman also emphatically points out that there will be no tax increase, despite the request expressed by Belarra

Executive sources recalled that they do not stop representing a “minority part within the minority partner” of the coalition. That is to say, for the Moncloa Podemos it weighs less than the voice of Vice President Díaz, who, however, still does not have a structure behind, of the commons or of the IU leader.

Also on Rodríguez’s part there was another counterclaim to the purples. Belarra called this Friday for an “emergency” tax reform to deal with the economic and social consequences of the war in Eastern Europe. The spokeswoman underpinned the position expressed on Thursday by the head of the Treasury: that the war scenario advises against any tax hike right now.

The Government, pointed out the spokeswoman emphatically, “does not contemplate any tax increase at this time“, as the “competent minister”, María Jesús Montero, said yesterday, Thursday. The report that she received from the committee of experts is “prior to this situation”, which changes the international order and will affect the Spanish economy and worldwide.

The context, Rodríguez added, is “different“, and the Government is “adopting measures aimed at cushioning the economic consequences” of the war in Ukraine. Measures such as the one adopted this Friday by the Council of Ministers, to release two million barrels of crude oil from the minimum security stocks of products oil products, with preferential destination to Kiev, “in the framework of a coordinated action of the International Energy Agency”. The minister recalled that the president promised to weave with unity a response plan to the crisis in Eastern Europe, which still lacks concreteness.



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