The first session of the investiture debate confirmed the gap that divides the investiture bloc and the opposition parties, with a strong tension derived from the amnesty law. Pedro Sánchez’s investiture speech prioritized the social agenda and did not address the amnesty until after the hour of intervention. A controversial measure that he defended as promoting “coexistence and also forgiveness.” Not only to win a legislature of progress, he assured, “but to bet on a future of reconciliation and harmony.” Arguments that extended in the key of “consolidate the progress of these four years and continue advancing along the path of coexistence and progress.” Preventively to Feijóo’s speech, he also associated the judicial shelving with the ‘procés’ as “the safest path” to guarantee “unity” from Spain. An alternative recipe to “imposition” that associated the PP: “We have done the opposite: the path of forgiveness, dialogue, negotiation. “We have put unity before fracture.”
The acting President of the Government also recognized that “the circumstances are what they are and it is time to make a virtue of necessity.” Both to close the institutional crisis opened with the ‘procés’ and to continue “improving the working and salary conditions of the workers, revaluing pensions in accordance with the CPI” or strengthening public services. “That’s why they don’t want us to govern,” he concluded, referring to the right and minimizing his opposition to the amnesty. He repeated the concept of “wall” up to three times; of his Executive against the alternative of the right and the extreme right.
Social rights and the strengthening of the welfare state are, precisely, the flags that Sánchez raised as a brake on the “reactionary wave.” and glue of the investiture block against PP and Vox. A “wall”, represented by the investiture bloc, against the extreme right, which it would have “whitewashed” Alberto Núñez Feijóo. The dichotomy of reaction to progress abounded during much of his speech. A block of his intervention was also conditioned by the mobilizations in the streets in recent days, as his team recognized. As soon as he got on the stage of the Hemicycle, he recognized the citizens who “legitimately protest” in the streets, with the nuance of when this right is exercised in a “peaceful” way.
“We have to choose,” the socialist candidate summarized to draw his investiture dilemma: either PP and Vox or “the parties that we want to advance, in different ways, with very important differences, but that we want to advance.” “What is decided today is who we hand over the reins of the Government for the next four years and which of those two opposite paths we take,” he added. The amnesty, in a way that the “end justifies the means”, as the opposition leader reproached him, or as mortar to raise the “wall” against the “reactionary agenda.”
Sánchez-Feijóo face to face
The face to face between Pedro Sánchez and Alberto Núñez Feijóo reproduced in Congress a tension that during these days is also felt in the street and anticipates the tenor of the 15th legislature. The leader of the PP brought out all his artillery against the future government of Pedro Sánchez making clear his resounding rejection of the amnesty. It was for this reason that he went from defining it as illegitimate to placing it on the verge of illegality through accusations of “political corruption.” “There are no ethical, political or legal limits for Sánchez,” Feijóo attacked in his intervention, to ensure at the same time that “making decisions against the general interest in exchange for personal benefits is corruption.” “The amnesty does not improve coexistence“It destroys it because it crushes the constitutionalist Catalans and divides the country in two,” said Feijóo.
The socialist candidate, for his part, framed the current PP outside of “democratic principles” and “parading” hand in hand with Vox and its “hate speech.” According to him, he reproached him for a path contrary to that of the founder of his party, Manuel Fraga, who “distanced himself from Francoism and joined democracy.”
The leaders of the PSOE and PP themselves made an effort in their interventions to highlight their insurmountable distance by trying to frame the other alongside their respective extremes on the left and right. Outside of any hint of centrality and with little programmatic or ideological debate to focus on cross attacks. Feijóo assumed that he will lead the opposition, but predicted that this investiture “will end with a constitutional procedure and with a legitimate majority.”
Before that, the leader of the Popular Party took part in the social mobilizations, announced new proposals promoted by the PP and launched the proclamation that “Spain does not give up”. Congress itself woke up shielded by security forces. As the day progressed, the number of protesters who gathered in its surroundings increased to show their rejection of the investiture of Pedro Sánchez. Faced with this, the acting President of the Government criticized that the popular “have not even been able to show solidarity” against attacks on their headquarters.
Between blows and counterblows, more than proposals and counterproposals, Sánchez indirectly referred on two occasions to the alleged relationship of the Galician politician in the past with the Galician drug trafficker Marcial Dorado. His main counterargument to Feijóo’s recurring allegation that he appears to be the winner of the elections, that the PP will be left alone this term “with the extreme right & rdquor; in front of the entire rest of the House. “It is not the amnesty, it is their inability to form parliamentary majorities”Sánchez stated along these lines, adding that the popular parties do not have a project for Catalonia.
“Do not collaborate with the coup”
Without hot cloths, the leader of Vox, Santiago Abascal began his speech by talking about a “coup d’état.” to refer to the investiture and the amnesty law. He predicted the “end of democracy & rdquor; and the “abolition of the rule of law.” On several occasions he repeated that he is experiencing “a coup d’état”, despite the fact that the president of the Chamber, Francina Armengol, had to call him to order for this and ask him to withdraw these words. Abascal claimed his “freedom of expression” and assumed that, despite his rejection, those expressions would be removed from the session diary.. “It is not rhetoric or verbal inflammation“This is the path that Sánchez has chosen,” it was confirmed.
The president of the far-right group defined the current moment as the “beginning of a tyranny” and He compared Sánchez to figures like Chávez or Hitler. “With the dictatorship of the votes, many of the worst tyrants in history have come to power,” he stated. before a hieratic popular bench and the voices of protest from the rest of the Chamber. In his competition with the PP, Abascal assured that “I am not going to hide” and encouraged the PP not to process the amnesty law in the Senate: “Do not collaborate with the coup.”
After their intervention, the Vox deputies left the plenary session to go to the protests at the doors of Congress. There was, therefore, no reply from Sánchez and Yolanda Díaz spoke on behalf of Sumar to highlight her coalition agreement with the PSOE, mainly in labor matters, attacking the PP for not defending democracy, vindicating the legacy of the fight against Francoism of its political leaders and defending the amnesty law. A measure with which “democracy wins,” he said. He demanded that the PSOE go beyond what was agreed, without hiding their differences on fiscal matters. The tone of the exchange between Sánchez and Díaz presages a better understanding between the partners than in the last legislature. A “respect policy”the acting President of the Government called it to differentiate it from other groups.
ERC, to Sánchez: “Don’t play it”
ERC spokesperson, Gabriel Rufián, referred to ‘lawfare’, the alleged judicial dirty war that Junts included in its agreement with the PSOE. Despite not being directly included in the amnesty law, it generated protests from both conservative and progressive judicial associations for “the eventual constitution of parliamentary investigative commissions that could determine what are ambiguously called derived ‘responsibilities'” of it. Denying its existence, Rufián concluded, “is like denying that the sun rises and sets every day.” What’s more, he linked the “judicial war” to to a strategy that “repeats” when he loses his right. Among his examples, the accusation of terrorism against the general secretary of his party, Marta Rovira, in the Tsunami Democràtic case.
He warned Sánchez, who will need the votes of all his partners to guarantee the stability of the legislature, “not to risk it.” A warning that he launched after asking himself rhetorically: “Do you see Rivera or Arrimadas here?”. However, he had previously addressed Feijóo to ensure that “the only thing that voters share” of the investiture block is “to stop you.”
The ERC spokesperson also had words for Junts, to “welcome” them. to the pragmatic path of agreement and that if the commitments made are not achieved, he will not blame them, as was the case in the last legislature. In terms of the face to face between Sánchez and Feijóo, the Republican spokesperson pointed to the PP to cast doubt on the “Spain is breaking”. “You have been saying for 46 years that Spain is breaking up,” she said ironically.
Junts links stability to progress
The ERC spokesperson also had words for Junts, to “welcome” them. to the pragmatic path of agreement and that if the commitments made are not achieved, he will not blame them, as was the case in the last legislature. In terms of the face to face between Sánchez and Feijóo, the Republican spokesperson pointed to the PP to cast doubt on the “Spain is breaking”. “You have been saying for 46 years that Spain is breaking up,” she said ironically.
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The Junts spokesperson, Miriam Nogueras, recalled that the stability of the legislature is in their hands. Whether it does not run aground will depend on whether there is “progress” in the commitments signed in the investiture pact. “Our commitment is to Catalonia and to no one else,” she concluded, after warning that “With us do not try to tempt fatebecause it’s not going to work.”
As with ERC, Sánchez limited his responses to the defense “of political path to resolve the conflict” with Catalonia and promised to continue taking steps. With his left hand, he referred to the need to “open a new stage” and assured from the rostrum, in response to the voices that asked for a concession from Junts, renouncing the unilateral path, that “I am not asking you to renounce your postulatesthey have the right to defend them.”