The initiative of the far-right leader in 2020 was the one with the least support and the most votes against democracy
A coup de effect works unexpectedly. And a motion of censure, as recent history says, is an effective instrument to spice up parliamentary tedium. But even the most exceptional debates can end up becoming in routines. After months feinting, Congress will debate Tuesday and Wednesday the second motion of vox in four years. The first was presented by Santiago Abascal in the midst of a pandemic and he wanted him to be a media speaker that would make him, de facto, the leader of the opposition to Pedro Sánchez. The result was the motion with the least support and the most votes against democracy, a precedent that looks set to be repeated in this new attempt.
With less than a year to go until the end of the legislature, the extreme right is still installed in the discourse that Sánchez is an “illegitimate” president and that that the motion of censure is an act of “national emergency & rdquor; before a Government “united by contempt for the Constitution and protected by an alliance with coup leaders and philoterrorists, enemies of Spain and who despise all Spaniards& rdquor ;, as the text of the initiative indicates. According to those of Abascal, the objective is to “evict Sánchez and his 22 ministers & rdquor; and call elections.
It is common for a party not to like the government of the other political sign. It is even that he votes against any initiative that bears his signature. But Up to now, no party had presented two motions of no confidence in the same legislature. Not even to different presidents. Vox is the first to repeat in the more than 40-year history of this parliamentary instrument.
Tamames, the novelty
The main novelty regarding 2020 is the Vox candidate for the motion. Until the last moment, Santiago Abascal was looking for an independent who was willing to put a face to his initiative. In the end it was Ramón Tamames, an 89-year-old economist who led the PCE during his youth, who has accepted Vox’s challenge but has also shown that he has his own voice. The ideological discrepancies were confirmed in the candidate’s media tour. And a few days after the debate, eldiario.es released a draft of his speech.
Vox is the first party that has presented two motions of censure, both against the same president and in the same legislature
The other novelty may come from the hand of the PP, a potential ally of Vox in Congress. In the 2020 motion, the popular ones opted for ‘no’. The debate also served for the then leader of the PP, Pablo Casado, to distance himself from the extreme right. That can change now: although Alberto Núñez Feijóo insists that the motion is a “show” and it will serve as “oxygen balloon for Sánchez & rdquor ;, he has already announced that will choose to abstain.
The ‘show’ of the ‘show’
The idea that next week’s debate will be more of a “show” that a parliamentary challenge was not only introduced by the PP with its criticism. The partners of the Government raised how to respond to the initiative further evidencing that it was a show. Various options have been considered: ERC proposed to the rest of the progressive parties that they respond to Tamames with the same speech, brief and agreed. United We Can has proposed that only women give the reply.
But the proximity of the electoral date turns the debate on Tuesday and Wednesday into a juicy scenario for campaigning, and not just for Vox. All groups will use their turns to reply and, although it may be quite clear that it will not succeed, the speeches may be less predictable. The failure of the reform of the gag law, the tensions within the government coalition and the electoral polls will mark an appointment whose result is the only thing guaranteed.