In accordance with expectations, Congress has rejected for the second time the investiture of Alberto Núñez Feijóo, who has once again garnered the same votes as 48 hours ago, 172 votes in favor, 137 from the PP, 33 from Vox, the UPN and the Canarian Coalition, compared to 177 votes against, those of the PSOE, Sumar, Bildu, PNV, ERC, Junts.
The bloc opposed to Feijóo had one less vote, because the Junts deputy, Eduard Pujol, voted yes, which was repeated by the secretary who read the names of the deputies called to vote, and although the parliamentarian said “no”, the vote had already been established. Finally the vote was annulled
On Tuesday, when a socialist deputy made a mistake and voted no, the secretary who was reading the names realized the mistake and did not say the vote. In fact, the socialist deputy never acknowledged her mistake, but rather said that he had said “no” to her name because it had not been pronounced correctly.
In fact, the error of this Junts deputy, although it was not corrected, with the argument that a vote cast can never be corrected, as in the case of the PP deputy Alberto Casero who voted by mistake for the labor reform, and that caused went ahead, in this case it does not change the meaning of the vote at all.
With this result, the president of Congress, Francina Armengol, will inform King Felipe VI this afternoon that the proposed candidate has not obtained the necessary confidence to be elected president. After this communication, a new process will be opened by which the King, on a date to be determined, will once again call all the parties for consultations, to see if there is any that can gather the necessary votes to be president.
There is no deadline for this, since the only existing calendar leads to November 27, the date on which if a president has not been elected the elections will automatically be repeated, which would take place on January 14.
Felipe VI may not even propose any candidate, in case the political leaders who come inform him that they do not have the necessary votes, something that did not happen in the case of the designation of the first candidate, Feijóo, since with his failed investiture the the two-month period for elections to be held.
After its failure, for Feijóo there are only two ways out “and neither of them is honorable: A lying Government or a repeat election.” A lying Government, explained why a Government of Pedro Sánchez with the support of ERC and Junts in exchange for the amnesty and the self-determination referendum “will be based on lies” since “or the independentistas have lied” if they give in to their demands, but they will have deceived their voters, “or the Socialist Party has deceived.”
For Feijóo, of these two possibilities, he believes that the deception of the PSOE is more possible, “hence their silences”, which is why he insisted: “Mr. Sánchez, amnesty yes or no, I say no; self-determination referendum yes or no, sir Sánchez, I say no.” The leader of the PP sees it possible for Sánchez to be president, but he will be, he said, “at the expense of the dignity and equality of the Spanish people.”
The president of the PP did not appeal for anyone to change their vote and support him: “I ask them not to be turncoats, not to be turncoats from their voters, from their principles and from the transition. Don’t be,” but he appealed “to the coherence and conscience”, but he made it clear to them that “we are not going to admit the cynicism of being asked later for what they deny us now. Another step of cynicism, no more.”
Regarding the second option, that of the electoral repetition, Alberto Núñez Feijóo considers that it is “more decorous”, because “consent was not requested for this, on the contrary”, and reminded him how he said no to the amnesty and the referendum of self-determination just two months ago. And he made another summons to Sánchez. “If you want to do it, get it at the polls.”
In the last speaking session, the PSOE spokesperson, again Óscar Puente, accused the popular candidate of “trampling on the symbols of the state just to strengthen himself in his party. He accused him of “using the Crown to crown himself leader of his party.” , also to Parliament to “reinforce himself before his own people.” That is, only with “a personal objective,” “irrelevant to the general interest,” and not to achieve his investiture as President of the Government. “A statesman does not trample on the symbols of the State,” Puente reproached Feijóo.
The president of Vox, Santiago Abascal, reiterated his support for Feijóo, but addressed, above all, Pedro Sánchez, given the possibility of him being president of the Government. The alternative to Núñez Feijóo’s candidacy, he said, is Pedro Sánchez, the “most corrupt politician in the history of Spain,” he stated, because “there is no greater corruption possible than a politician amnestying another politician in order to stay in power.” “, the far-right leader blurted out in the short debate prior to the second vote in Congress. For their part, ERC and Junts reproached Feijóo for the PP’s archive of newspapers and the absence of solutions to the conflict.
