The acting president of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, decided not to reply to Alberto Núñez Feijóo in the turn that corresponds to the PSOE in the investiture debate of the leader of the PP. Nor has the spokesperson for the socialist parliamentary group, Patxi López. The chosen one was the socialist deputy and former mayor of Valladolid Oscar Puente who has risen to the Congress rostrum amidst the surprise and boos of the popular bench.
Both in Moncloa and in the PSOE there had been silence regarding the possibility of there being a face to face between Sánchez and Feijóo in this debate and they had urged listening to the candidate for the investiture first.
““Neither you nor I won the last elections.”
Puente, socialist deputy in the 15th legislature of the Cortes Generales for Valladolid, a member of the PSOE since 1990 and a lawyer by profession, has been mayor of Valladolid between June 2015 and June 2023, the date on which he was removed from office despite the fact that His candidacy was the most voted in the Castilian province in the May elections.
Puente, who did not get his third term in Valladolid due to the pact between PP and Vox, whose sum of votes achieved the absolute majority to raise the popular Jesús Julio Carnero to the position of first mayor, has begun his reply considering that the proposal to let govern to the most voted list is absurd in the parliamentary framework current. Recognizing it as constitutional, Puente has said that it is unethical to say one thing and do the opposite. ““Neither you nor I won the last elections.”.
Controversial intervention
Even before Óscar Puente began his speech, the popular people had received the socialist deputy appointed by Sánchez to respond to Feijóo with boos. Puente did not disappoint neither to one nor to the other, and his speech caused as much laughter and applause among those on his bench as kicks and protests among the popular ones, to whom the president of the Lower House, Francina Armengol, had to call to order after also listening how they shouted “coward” at the acting President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, for having refused to intervene in the investiture debate.
The popular bench has revolted during different parts of Puente’s speech, especially when He has reproached Feijóo for his relationship with drug trafficker Marcial Dorado.
“The people who are listening to us deserve that we rise to the occasion,” Armengol claimed on one of the occasions when Puente asked him for protection against the actions of the PP deputies.
External observers, such as the former vice president of the Government Pablo Iglesiashave said about Puente: “The PSOE is committed to Óscar Puente, his most aggressive and incorrect profile (sometimes he is openly a thug) to respond to Feijóo… Of course those profiles work in these debates. And even more so if the progressive media does not attack them and does not accuse them of being irritable and making noise.”
🤔 The PSOE opts for Oscar Puente, its most aggressive and incorrect profile (sometimes he is openly a thug) to respond to Feijóo… Of course those profiles work in these debates. And even more so if the progressive media does not attack them and does not accuse them of irritating and making noise. pic.twitter.com/RIUO5zWhXf
— Pablo Iglesias 🔻R (@PabloIglesias) September 26, 2023
PP: “How little respect our institutions”
For his part, the deputy secretary of Organization of the PP, Miguel Tellado, has stated that it is “evident that Sánchez has had very little desire to dare to debate with Feijóo” after the electoral debate that both had during the electoral campaign. “How little respect for our institutions,” he emphasized on the social network ‘X’, former Twitter.
Along the same lines, sources from the PP leadership consulted by Europa Press have indicated that Sánchez recently had his last debate with Feijóo during the electoral campaign and “has preferred to avoid another humiliation.”
However, the ‘popular’ have stressed that “to protect himself he has crossed a limit that is unprecedented“and recalled that González “had the dignity of responding to Aznar after being defeated at the polls.”
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“Sánchez is not worthy of the Presidency, nor of the minutes, nor of the position of general secretary of the PSOE,” indicated the same sources, who have assured that the PSOE could have removed its parliamentary spokesperson to the speakers’ gallery in the Congress, Patxi López.
Furthermore, PP sources have stressed that Puente’s speech from the rostrum shows that “he is opposing the historical leaders of the PSOE”, alluding to the words of the socialist spokesperson asking the PP not to waste time looking for “dissidents, deserters or traitors to parade them through the gatherings, through the media that share their strategy” because “none is anymore representative of this PSOE.”