The path towards a possible investiture of Pedro Sánchez has begun to be traveled this Monday. The King has opened the round of contacts with the parties, which will last until tomorrow, Tuesday, and has begun to canvass support for the candidacy of the PSOE leader. Among those who have passed through the Zarzuela is the second vice president of the Government and leader of Sumar, Yolanda Díaz, who has indicated to Felipe VI her willingness to form a new coalition government with the PSOE chaired by Sánchez, but has assured that her formation is still “very far” from reaching an agreement.
Díaz has informed the head of state that they continue negotiating with the PSOE and that Sumar’s desire is to achieve an “ambitious” agreement, as Díaz herself explained in Congress, where she appeared to report on her meeting in Zarzuela.
The leader of Sumar has conveyed to Felipe VI that the will of her group is to form a “progressive” coalition government and they have been working on this since the beginning of August. He has guaranteed that he will work with all the “discretion, responsibility, level-headedness and a lot of dialogue” so that this agreement goes ahead and has assured that the role of his party in the new Executive, if it ends up being formed, will be to continue “gaining rights.” For the spanish people. However, she wanted to make it clear that nothing is closed: “We are going to work to comply with the citizens’ mandate but as of today there is no agreement. We are far from the progressive Government,” she reiterated.
And if Díaz sells Sumar’s support at a high price, the Canarian Coalition deputy, Cristina Valido, does not close the door to an agreement with Sánchez for his investiture if the PSOE accepts the requests of her party. Valido, who voted in favor of the investiture of Alberto Núñez Feijóo last week, confirmed upon leaving her meeting with the King that there is no agreement with the PSOE and not even a negotiation as such has been opened. However, the Canary Islands deputy has left in suspense the “red lines” that her party put in place during the electoral campaign. “The red lines are set by the organization based on the information it receives from the other side and that information is not there,” she said.
Among these red lines was that CC would not support any agreement for a government with Vox or Sumar: “We told our voters that we would not be in governments with the extreme right and the extreme left. We have also already said that we do not share the amnesty. We will see what is offered and is willing to assume.
“Our predisposition is to talk. Don’t go any further,” he warned in his appearance before the media. “We are going to see if the PSOE accepts what we ask, to have information about the approaches it has, its negotiations and to be able to talk. From there, it is all speculation. Let’s wait for there to be a step in favor of a negotiation to be able to position ourselves in the scenario that the PSOE proposes”, he assured.
The King’s round of contacts started this Monday in order from least to greatest representation in Congress, starting with UPN and ending with the PP. However, Felipe VI will not be able to sound out four of the PSOE leader’s possible parliamentary allies, since ERC, Junts, EH Bildu and the BNG have once again refused to attend these meetings.
The first to go to the Zarzuela was the president of the Unión del Pueblo Navarro (UPN), Javier Esparza, at 11, followed by the deputy of the Canary Coalition (CC), Cristina Valido, at 12, and the parliamentary spokesperson of the PNV, Aitor Esteban, at 1:00 p.m. In the afternoon, at 4:30 p.m., the second vice president of the acting Government and leader of Sumar, Yolanda Díaz, is summoned, and an hour later, the president of Vox, Santiago Abascal.
The round will be closed on Tuesday morning by Sánchez and Núñez Feijóo. To obtain the investiture, the candidate needs the support of the absolute majority of Congress (176 of the 350 deputies), in a first vote, and a simple majority (more votes in favor than against) in a second vote. Sánchez has the 121 seats of the PSOE and the 31 of Sumar, which have guaranteed his support. Therefore, the votes of ERC (7), Junts (7), EH Bildu (5), PNV (5) and BNG (1) will be decisive.
In his meeting with the King, Esparza told him that he will not support the investiture of Pedro Sánchez, as reported by the UPN spokesperson in Congress at the end of the meeting. The PSOE will not have the votes of the PP or Vox either. But they don’t throw in the towel with CC.
