A government “designed to break up anger and confrontation, and a government made not to manage, but to stay in power.” This is how the PP summarizes its assessment of the new Government, after learning of its composition during the Steering Committee meeting. Behind him, the PP spokesperson, Borja Sémper, spoke of a Government “as expensive as the previous one, which is committed to tension”, in addition to being a worrying message for the separation of powers.” A Government with 22 ministers, four vice presidents and a “vice president without portfolio, Carles Puigdemont, who will direct the country’s plans from Waterloo.”
That the Government formed by Pedro Sánchez with Sumar was not going to be liked by the PP, was known, firstly because of the number of portfolios, 22, with four vice-presidencies, when Alberto Núñez Feijóo has always demanded from the President of the Government a more austere executive and with less members, but the popular ones have given one more turn to the appointment of the ministers, focusing on Félix Bolaños, who joins his presidential portfolio with that of Justice, which makes him, according to Borja Sémper, “minister of amnesty” and it represents a “terrible message that it sends to Europe”, which means uniting the most political portfolio of the Government with the one that has to do with Justice.
“By uniting the Ministries of the Presidency and Justice and handing over his management to his most political minister, Sánchez sends a clear message to Europe and the judicial system, and it is not precisely to depoliticize justice in Spain,” sources from the leadership of the PP, who also consider that the fact that Bolaños also has relations with the Cortes among his responsibilities “implies that he coordinates the functions of the President of the Executive, directs relations with the Legislative Branch, and coordinates dealings with the Judicial Branch “Quite a message for a president who has little interest in protecting the separation of powers in our country.”
Regarding the Government, in general, the PP leadership considers that “Sánchez has lost the opportunity to reduce the most expensive Government in history and maintains 22 portfolios and four vice-presidencies”, although in the end, for the PP, it is quite irrelevant how many ministers there are. and those who hold the portfolios, since it considers that the Executive is hostage to its investiture agreements.
“One president, four Vice-Presidents, 22 ministers… but the one who continues to rule our country is Carles Puigdemont, who will decide who remains and for how long since his “exile” in Waterloo”, highlight the PP sources, in their first assessment of the new executive, announced today, after the inauguration of Pedro Sánchez last Thursday.
Another of the ministers on whom the PP focuses is the head of the Interior, who the PP also criticizes. “The continuity of Fernando Grande-Marlaska is a provocation, after the Pegasus scandal, his lies about the incident that left several dead at the Melilla fence, or the migratory crisis, they underline in the popular leadership.
And of course, the appointment of Óscar Puente, in charge of responding to Alberto Núñez Feijóo in his failed investiture in September, is another provocation for the PP, “to raise the wall between Spaniards that he anticipated in his investiture speech, Sánchez has chosen the “appropriate bricklayer by seating Óscar Puente in the Council of Ministers,” the PP sources highlighted. With his appointment, according to Óscar Puente, the choice was made “for anger, for building walls”, which, according to Borja Sémper, means that Pedro Sánchez has become “the most divisive president that Spain has ever had.”
The PP also refers to the fact that Podemos does not have any ministry, and that Equality is in the hands of the socialists and not their coalition partners, Sumar. “By throwing Podemos out of the Government – they say in the PP – he blames Ione Belarra’s party for all the problems it had in the previous mandate”, which in the opinion of the PP, and as Feijóo already said in his reply to the investiture of Sánchez “now despises the party that helped him become president.”
Faced with this Government, Borja Sémper stressed, the PP will make “a forceful and firm opposition, but responsible, solvent and serious, dedicated to protecting the institutions in Spain, committed by those who prefer policies of shock and rupture.” An opposition, the popular spokesperson insisted, “that far from being characterized by being hard or soft” what it aims to do is “be effective and responsible, and that looks after the interests of the Spanish people”, and that has among its objectives to defend the State of Right.
This characteristic of defending the institutionality is raised by the PP in its offensive against the amnesty, which Vox wants to lead with a permanent mobilization in the street, which the PP does not renounce either, but working, especially through institutional channels, because The PP considers that “there is still a long way to go institutionally.” Therefore, for the popular party, the meeting that Abascal has requested from Feijóo, to go towards a unity of action, is not a priority, nor even desirable, and the PP will continue on its path, calling for mobilizations or joining those called by civil society, but without leaving the institutional side”.
They will do so in Congress, with the recusal of one of the lawyers who have to report on the admission or not of the amnesty law proposal for processing; in the Senate, with the reform of the Regulation, so that it can be analyzed calmly, in Europe with debates such as the one that will be held on Wednesday in the European Parliament, and at the regional level, calling for the holding of a Conference of Presidents. A power that Vox does not have, and with which it will not share.
