Pedro Sánchez surprised again. He did it without opening his mouth or going up to the podium. Without leaving the suit. The socialist president sent one of those forceful defenders who prevent any flourish from the rival team. Óscar Puente, former mayor of Valladolid, was Sánchez’s tough fighter in charge of emphasizing that the investiture that Feijóo intends is nothing more than “a farce.”
In the hours before the investiture session, the PSOE kept Sánchez’s intervention in the air, but few thought that he would decline to reply to Feijóo. The socialist strategy consists of making it clear that the leader of the PP is not a viable candidate and a president, even if he is in office, cannot answer him without at the same time giving him the patina of being presidential and assuming, in turn, an opposition role.
The chosen one could have been Patxi López, spokesperson for the socialist group. Feijóo himself acknowledged that he expected that possibility. But the person in charge was Puente, one of those deputies so useful to all parties, willing to put his boots on the ground recovering the miseries of others and ridiculing his rival, with oratory as sharp as daggers. A deputy like Puente can allow everything that a Prime Minister cannot say from the Congress rostrum without breaking the dishes and being accused of being uninstitutional. Thus, rays and sparks came out of his mouth: from the “tamayazo” to the PP bonuses to the patriotic police or Feijóo’s friendship with a drug trafficker.
The contrast in tone was brutal. From the solemnity with which Feijóo was imbued as a candidate for the presidency, the House moved on to the irony and succession of jokes from the socialist deputy, while Sánchez enjoyed the spectacle and even stood up to applaud from his seat, followed by the his. If Feijóo had opened his speech with a broadside against the amnesty of the independentists, the socialist reply managed to erase that issue for a long time.
Feijóo responded: “I am not going to contribute to the comedy club.” It seemed that he was not going to reply, but he ended up responding to some of the socialist deputy’s statements. “I’m not here for this,” the PP leader insisted. Feijóo had prepared for a Champions League match, he had prepared the plays and even some virtuous passes with a speech that appealed to concepts as big as they were misleading: morality, honesty, integrity or reliability. But he found himself with a tough defender, one of those who don’t appear on cards, but he has no qualms about putting his leg in when it comes to defending the goal.
