The Government exhibits firmness in energy saving but accuses the battle with the PP

The Government considers that it has fulfilled its objective, which has made it clear that the royal decree law on energy saving and efficiency do not touch, you have put “against the ropes” to Alberto Núñez Feijóo and that he has been seen practically surrendered to Isabel Díaz Ayuso. But for Pedro Sánchez’s Executive the last week has not been optimal either. In the end, it has been seen tangled up in a political battle that has not left the media and the public conversation and had to rectify its initial plans due to the size of the fire or, according to the official version, the “boycott threatof the Community of Madrid.

The result of the last chapter of the fight between the Government and, basically (although not only) the PP could be taken for granted even hours, days before. Because it was never in the Government’s mind to change a comma of the royal decree law 14/2022which from this Wednesday, August 10, imposes the adjustment of the thermostats in public spaces and off of shop windows and public buildings unoccupied at 10 p.m.

That is why the Sectoral Conference on Energy, Tourism and Commerce convened for this Monday with the regional councilors and the Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces, and chaired by the third vice-president, Teresa Ribera, and the Minister of Industry, Reyes Maroto, ended with the rejection of any type of modification. Madrid, Andalusia, Castile and Leon, Galicia Y Murcia —the five communities governed by the PP— called for the decree to be withdrawn. Something, in itself, impossible, because the rule is published in the BOE, it is in force and it has the force of law: it would only be possible for Congress not to validate it due to lack of support. “The approved decree is what it is, no modifications“, solemnized the vice president.

Catalonia claimed to postpone the application of the text, but “his concern was not so much about the substance, but about accompany to those sectors that have not taken adequate measures yet”, as Ribera summed up at the end. Nor will anything be postponed: the obligation for commerce and hospitality will start, then, in hours. Transition, however, yes set the date of August 31 for the Autonomous Communities to send their energy saving proposals for the contingency plan that Spain must submit to Brussels in September.

The Community of Madrid, the one that first waged war —again— against the Executive, on the same night the decree was approved, on August 1, was also the first (and for now the only one) to confirm this Monday that It will appeal it before the Constitutional Court, given the “closeness” of Moncloa, its “non-rectification” and the invasion of “own” powers of the region. The announcement overlapped with Sánchez’s words from Lanzarote: the president asked “Unit, responsibility Y solidarity“to the PP, although he already anticipated that the effort would be wasted, that he preached “in the desert”, since Feijóo’s PP continues to militate in the “blockade”, in the opposition “destructive and denial“.

There was no “improvisation”

The socialist leader did not say it explicitly, but he did imply that he will not give in to another demand from Feijóo and the popular advisers: he will not convene a Conference of Presidents. He alleged that there had been a previous dialogue with the communities and with the private agents and that shortly before the Sectorial meeting had concluded, which had lasted more than three hours. Sources from Moncloa and Transition pointed out that in no case was it moved at the meeting that there may be an upcoming summit of presidents. Moreover, the councilors, behind closed doors, they didn’t sue himalways according to these same sources.

For Ribera, the fact that the PP raised the tone on successive days, to the point of claiming the Conference of Presidents —with Mariano Rajoy in power only held two, in 2012 and 2017for the 20 that have taken place since 2020, 14 of them during the first state of alarm—, does not “help reassure nothing” or to “facilitate nothing”. The vice president thus accused the PP of seeking confrontation. She also tried to shake off the accusation for “improvisation“. “Improvise,” he said, who “talks about the decree before reading it” —was going for Ayuso, the one who lit the fuse—, or who “does not know” the labor regulations —the text refers to the decree of 1997 that already differentiates between sedentary and light work when calculating the interior temperature—or the Regulation of Thermal Installations of Buildings (RITE)as since 2009 premises that did not use renewable energy for air conditioning had to have a door locking system.

The Council of Ministers approved on August 1 in the afternoon the controversial decree law, which Ribera herself reported at a press conference starting at nine o’clock at night. Ayuso was quick to proclaim on Twitter, just two hours later, the “Madrid does not turn off”encouraging a kind of rebelliousness for a few hours, because the next day its regional vice president, Enrique Ossorio, assured that the Executive would fulfill the rule. Of course, he himself denounced two days later, on Thursday 4, the “blunders” of the regulations and called on businesses to keep their windows off for ten seconds, because that was enough to “comply” with it.

“We did it”

Ayuso, without moving from his vacation spot or speaking in front of the cameras, went ahead, had the singing voice, but neither the national leadership of the PP nor the rest of the communities governed by the conservatives disavowed it. Not much less. They denounced the “improvisation”, the lack of “dialogue” of the Government, the imposition of measures. Feijóo, this Sunday, ended up requesting the convening of the Conference of Presidents. The complaints, however, did not come only from the popular ranks. The Basque Government lamented the “sensationalism” of the measures of the Executive, although later the lendakari, Iñigo Urkullu, put the brakes on and guaranteed that the decree would be fulfilled in Euskadi, although he criticized Sánchez’s method, which had not taken into account the autonomies.

After the criticism, the Government moved. On Friday, Ribera went out to clarify doubts about the regulations (for example, that bars and shops may have a temperature of around 25 degrees, to be light work), and then called a meeting for August 9 at the technical with the communities. The PP’s complaint did not go away, nor did the political entanglement. La Moncloa rectified: it canceled that appointment on Tuesday and set for this Monday a meeting of higher rank, political, of Ribera, Maroto (and the Secretary of Energy, Sarah Aagesen) with directors and the FEMP. “The Sectorial is convened to stop a boycott. And we have achieved it —they underlined this August 8 in Transition—, because no community has said that they will not comply with the decree, and instead the governments have promised to send us proposals for the contingency plan”. “With the Sectorial, we take the political initiativethat the PP dared to say that it was not going to comply”, they abounded in Sánchez’s team.

The Executive wants to focus on Feijóo, on his “lack of leadership” before Ayuso, in the words of the socialist deputy general secretary and head of the Treasury, María Jesús Montero, from Algeciras (Cádiz). “Every day it is more evident that in the PP they change their president, but who sets their line is Ayuso. And it is always a negationist, unsupportive and selfish line”, denounced on Twitter the Minister of Education and new spokesperson for the PSOE, Pilar Alegría. Ultimately, the Executive concludes that the wear “The PP takes it.”

Every day it is more evident that in the #PP They change their president, but the one who marks their line is Ayuso.

And it is always a negationist, unsupportive and selfish line. https://t.co/hQzXo7Hzpb

– Pilar Joy (@Pilar_Alegria) August 8, 2022

Measurements not explained.

In Moncloa they congratulate themselves for having put “against the ropes“to the leader of the PP, of whom they also highlight his “lack of technical knowledge” and predict that this clash will end “harming” to Ayuso, because the public has taken “common sense” measures when the war in Ukraine continues and the threat of cutting off the gas supply by Vladimir Putin is more present than ever. The Madrid president, government sources continue, ” wants to make this one culture war with a Trumpist and obstructionist strategy.” “And look how Trump ended up,” they warn. You can’t call people at rebellion against the rules. And if an Administration does that, the Government has the obligation to do everything in its power to avoid it.”

Related news

However, not everyone in the leadership is convinced by this more triumphalist reading. “Some people miscalculate —says a member of the socialist leadership—. They believed that with the meeting [de este lunes] we took the initiative and everyone has interpreted it as a rectification“Because the Executive will also have a hard time refuting the accusation of lack of dialogue, the most common criticism and perhaps the one that weighs the most. Transition recalls that Ribera met twice with the spokespersons, before (July 19) and after ( July 27) of the agreement reached at the Council of Energy Ministers in Brussels (July 26), in which the vice president “worked hard” so that the snip was not the 15% suggested by the Commission, but 7 He also dispatched by videoconference on Thursday the 28th with the Ministers of Environment and Energy He did not receive proposals from the autonomies, they argue.

But in those meetings, the vice president did not advance the specification of the measures because “they were not done yet“. “The philosophy was explained to them, not the details because they did not even exist”, they justify. The Government had to act quickly, since the commitment to reduce energy consumption committed to Brussels “account from August 1“This is only, in any case, a “first package” of measures. Now it remains to write the contingency plan and the Government hopes that, this time, noise will not prevail, given that even PP communities have promised, they say in Transition, make their contributions and “work together” to cut the electricity bill.