When a minister or senior socialist official is asked about Vox’s motion of no confidence, the first name to appear is always that of Alberto Núñez Feijóo. The leader of the PP is not a deputy and will not even attend the initiative, which will take place on Tuesday and Wednesday in Congress, but at Moncloa they want to turn this debate into a judgment of his figure: its dependence on the extreme right, which the popular need almost everywhere to govern, its “lack of courage & rdquor; to vote against rather than abstain on the motion and its permanent ‘not’ to any initiative of the Government, be it the increase in the minimum wage, the reform of pensions or aid to alleviate the economic consequences of the war in Ukraine.
Last Thursday, 12:30 in the morning at Moncloa. Government spokesperson, Elizabeth Rodriguez, appears after the Council of Ministers. They ask him if other members of the Executive, beyond Sánchez, will intervene to reply to the candidate proposed by Vox, the economist Ramon Tamames, which only has the support of the 52 ultras seats. “This motion is going to be very interesting for contrast models. For example, our pension model compared to that of the right and the extreme right. For Mr. Feijóo it is very easy to reject pensions, but very difficult to reject the extreme right. That is why he will refrain, shaking hands with her. That is what developer and what interests the Government& rdquor ;, he answers. Not a single allusion to the response to Tamames.
The Vox candidate will not appear excessively during Sánchez’s speech. The president’s collaborators explain that he will treat Tamames with the deserved “respect & rdquor ;, but that he will take advantage of the motion to focus on Santiago Abascal, that he does not “dare& rdquor; to run again as a candidate, as he did in October 2020, and in Feijóo, who also “is not capable& rdquor; to vote against, unlike what happened two and a half years ago with the first motion of Vox, when the popular, with paul married at the head of the party, they rejected it without putting themselves in profile.
The unusual component
The idea is to portray the right and the extreme right as if they were the same, leaving aside a Tamames from whom the socialists expect anything. Doomed to failure, almost everything in this motion of censure has an unusual component: it intends to call general elections in May (only six months before when they will end up being held) and its candidate is an 89-year-old economist who was leader of the PCE and it has evolved towards much more conservative positions, but which does not feel constrained by the discourse of the extreme right. On the contrary. Make your differences at the slightest opportunity, in continuous interviews in which he defends positions that are anathema to Abascal (Spain as a “nation of nations”, the fight against climate change or abortion), reveals that invited Sánchez to dinner (without success) and assures that it is not “particularly critical & rdquor; with the president. feel for him “certain esteem & rdquor ;.
To finish closing the circle, his initial intervention no longer supposes no mystery, after being advanced on Wednesday by ‘El Diario’. The candidate is there critical of the socialist leader, whom he accuses of turning Spain into a “absorbent autocracy & rdquor ;, and also collects some of the key ideas of the extreme right, such as linking crime with “uncontrolled immigration & rdquor; and alert that the Constitution is in danger due to the “assignments & rdquor; to independence. But the speech moves away from tremendous tone of Vox. It has little to do with what Abascal pronounced in his first attempt to evict Sánchez. The Vox leader turned that into a furious tirade against the world: environmentalism, the EU, China, George Soros, equality, science and even casual dress.
This contrast between the extreme right and its candidate also serves the PSOE to attack Feijóo. “It also seems more free and independent of Vox than the PP itself & rdquor ;, the Minister of the Presidency said on Friday, Felix Bolanos.
The expectations
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“Hopefully the motion it will not end never”, points out an important socialist deputy. “It would be very useful for us if Vox could present one every month & rdquor ;, adds a minister. The meeting in Congress comes at a delicate moment for the PSOE: for behind the PP in all the surveys (except those of the CIS) and with relations with Podemos in very low hours due to the clash over the law of ‘only yes is yes’. The motion, they hope in the socialist direction, will serve to rise above the “noise & rdquor; internally, reconsolidate the coalition and the investiture bloc, highlight the latest achievements of the Executive (pensions, minimum wage, inflation control or economic growth) and above all to equate Feijóo with Abascal and reactivate the leftist vote along the way.
After the debate, the government crisis will arrive, which according to what Sánchez announced will be limited to relieving the ministers maroto kings and Caroline Darias so that they turn to their candidacies for the city councils of Madrid and Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. The president wants to arrive at Easter with his homework done and focus on the regional and municipal elections of May 28. A priori, the objective is feasible. But the socialist leader also designed a quiet start to the year in December. Then came the clashes with the purples over the ‘only yes is yes’ law, the ‘Meditor case’ and Ferrovial’s march to the Netherlands.