The five votes in favor, already announced by the pro-independence formation, neutralize the ‘no’ for which both the ERC and the PP have finally opted
Today’s vote promised to be a dizzying vote and, however, the Government learned very soon, at 9:30 in the morning, that it will manage to save its anti-crisis plan thanks to the five EH-Bildu deputies, although it will leave many hairs in the cattery After ten days tightening the rope and threatening to withdraw all support for Pedro Sánchez for the alleged espionage of the independence movement between 2017 and 2020, the formation led by Arnaldo Otegi decided to bite the bullet. “We will approve this decree, but make no mistake,” his spokesperson, Mertxe Aizpurua, warned during the plenary session, “we will do it for the people, not for the government.”
Bildu’s ‘yes’ allowed the Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya to bet on a punishing ‘no’ to the Executive knowing that the royal decree law has, on paper, enough votes to go ahead regardless of the position of the PP, that in the debate he has taken a very hard position and is more compatible with a ‘no’ than with an abstention. · “It is the Government that says no to all our proposals and that way it will understand that it is very difficult to understand each other,” said deputy Jaime Olano.
Waiting for the vote, which will take place around 2:00 p.m., the Government has already tied up 176 ‘yes’ – PSOE (120), United We Can (33, plus its former deputy, now in the Mixed Group , Meri Pita), PNV (6), EH Bildu (5), PDECat (4), Más País (2), Compromís (1), Nueva Canarias (1), Partido Regionalista de Cantabria (1), BNG (1) and Teruel Exists (1)-. The royal decree law only needs a simple majority to prosper, which would already be guaranteed, taking into account, in addition, the abstention of the Canarian Coalition (1).
The parties of the so-called investiture block have warned, in any case, the Minister of the Presidency, Félix Bolaños, in charge of defending the text, that the validation does not put an end to the crisis opened by the ‘Pegasus case’. Aizpurua stressed that “confidence has been touched” and that “espionage has opened a gap.” “Once again – he wielded – we will act with the responsibility that we owe to the citizenry and today we will approve this decree, because the people cannot and should not be the ones to pay the consequences of the serious errors of this Government.” Also Iñigo Errejón, from Más País, or Iodia Sagastizabal, from the PNV, had an impact on this issue.
The Government thus saves an important set point but remains in a delicate situation. Its relations with the Generalitat of Catalonia and with its main parliamentary allies are seriously damaged. The PP blames him for preferring to get out of the quagmire by changing the rule in a hurry to get Bildu on the official secrets commission, instead of accepting his economic proposals (the reduction of taxes on medium and low incomes, a reduction in VAT for electricity, “efficient management” of European funds and a reduction in bureaucratic and political spending). And in a few weeks the electoral campaign will begin in Andalusia, to which the PSOE attends under minimum conditions and in which winks at secessionism can be a problem.
www.hoy.es
Eddie is an Australian news reporter with over 9 years in the industry and has published on Forbes and tech crunch.