Sánchez risks the future of the legislature

The Government arrives this Thursday at the plenary session of Congress in which its plan against the economic consequences of the war in Ukraine will be debated without having its validation guaranteed. Neither ERC nor EH Bildu raised their threat yesterday to vote against it as a pressure measure to force the Executive to assume responsibilities for the alleged espionage of the independence movement between 2017 and 2020. At the last minute, the Socialists offered to process the text as a bill and open it to “contributions” from the groups, as its partners requested weeks ago. Pedro Sánchez, who was scheduled to travel to Moldova this Thursday and to Poland on Friday, finally decided to postpone the departure to be present on a key day for his mandate.

The PSOE had encouraged the day before the idea that the President of the Government would take advantage of the control session to make a new gesture to Esquerra, after she disdained the maneuver of the President of Congress, Meritxell Batet, to include them together with Bildu at the Official Secrets Commission. In the ten days that have passed since the crisis broke out, Sánchez had not said a word, but neither did he contribute anything new yesterday.

Far from channeling the storm, the plenary ended with the spirits of both secessionism and the minority party of the Executive, United We Can, even more bitter by a few words from the Minister of Defense, Margarita Robles, in the shootout for days. «What does a State have to do when someone violates the Constitution, when someone declares independence, cuts off public roads and is having relations with political leaders of a country? [Rusia] that is invading Ukraine?”, questioned the head of the CNI to the deputy of the CUP, Mireia Vehí.

ERC and Bildu assure that they do not want to topple the Government. The deputy of the Basque pro-independence formation, Jon Iñarritu, openly told the Minister of the Presidency, Félix Bolaños. But from both parties they argue that the socialists are not leaving them too many outlets; that his response to the “serious scandal” uncovered by ‘The New Yorker’ with data from the cybersecurity group of the University of Toronto, Citizen Lab -an internal investigation by the CNI and explanations by the director of the center in the secret commission- is insufficient . And that in addition to a commission of investigation, there must be dismissals.

The message that the spokesman for the Republicans, Gabriel Rufián, launched yesterday in the hemicycle was resounding. “For the time being,” he snapped at Sánchez, “ask Mr. Casero for the phone number (referring to the PP deputy who saved the labor reform by mistake)”. It was an irony but the truth is that given the turn things have taken, the Government has not left a door unannounced to try to overcome, at least, this set ball. He tried it yesterday with Ciudadanos, whose abstention could be key, but his spokesperson, Edmundo Bal, demanded in return that Bildu not have access to official secrets.

card crossing

On Tuesday night, the Minister of Finance, María Jesús Montero, also contacted the economic manager of the popular, Juan Bravo. The PP replied in writing that the plan will have its support if it is processed as a bill and its four basic demands are included in it: a tax cut for medium and low incomes, a VAT cut for electricity in accordance with community rules, efficient management of European funds and a reduction in bureaucratic and political spending by the current government.

Until now, the Executive has not shown signs of being for the work of incorporating the proposals of the popular ones. Doing so would open a new front with its partners at an extremely sensitive time. What the Socialists trust is that Alberto Núñez Feijóo opts for at least one abstention without compensation. The President of the Government even asked yesterday “formally” the leader of the opposition for his support. “I ask you,” he said, “and the rest of the House.” Montero also replied to Bravo with another letter in which he already reports the processing of the royal decree law as a project, delaying the acceptance of his initiatives. “It is necessary to study, among other measures, the economic and budgetary impact,” he alleges.

The Socialists continue to question whether the ERC dares to overthrow measures with an immediate impact on citizens. Yesterday, in fact, the Republicans voted in the Equality Commission in favor of the ‘Zerolo law’ in favor of “the rights of minorities.” Junts per Catalunya, on the other hand, avoided voting.