There is one week left for the investiture debate of Alberto Núñez Feijóo, and the wait is getting very long. Not even the event that will be held on Sunday against the amnesty, “For the equality of Spaniards” – as its motto says -, does not ease this long waiting time. Popular people are cautious, but optimistic. They explain that it is a “conventional and PP political act”, but they raise expectations by ensuring that it goes beyond the party. So much so, that the spokesperson of the PP, Borja Sémper, made an express invitation yesterday “to socialists with a card, to those who have been expelled, to social democrats at heart” and also to “conservatives and liberals”.
There was no appeal to Vox, the only party that waited for an invitation that never came, and that will finally go to the demonstration of Societat Civil Catalana on October 8. Sémper did mention the PSOE, and he trusted that some leader or some critical socialist militant would go there. That is why it is planned to hold the big rally in the street, so that those who are not supporters of the PP feel more comfortable. “This is not taking the streets, it is a right”, the PP responds to the central government’s accusations. The people’s hope is based on the number of calls they receive at their headquarters from all over Spain, from people interested in going to the event. This is how they detect “an ever-increasing rejection” of the possible amnesty.
Sémper announced that this is not just any rally, the importance will lie in its content. “We call to defend the refusal to break the Constitution and what the country is playing for”.
That is why they refer to the scant concreteness of the acting president on the possible concessions made to the pro-independence parties in exchange for the investiture. The PP asked him a direct question yesterday: “Do you want to grant amnesty, yes or no?”. Sémper demanded that he respond by leaving aside “innovations such as there are several types of amnesty”, and without hiding behind “euphemisms or outlandish analyses”. A criticism that alluded to the statements of Vice President Yolanda Díaz, in La Vanguardia, in which she said that there were several types of amnesty and that the resolution of the Catalan conflict had to be done through an agreement with social agents and civil society. “He only needed to appeal to the third family member”, stressed the PP spokesman.
One of the social agents, the employer, responded to the vice president yesterday. After meeting with Núñez Feijóo, the president of the CEOE, Antonio Garamendi, said a clear “no” to the amnesty, which in his opinion is not according to the Constitution, and encouraged the PSOE and the PP to sit down negotiate great deals. Garamendi in 2021 spoke out in favor of pardons.
“We Spanish businessmen are with the unity of Spain, with the Constitution of 1978, with the parliamentary monarchy, with the separation of powers, with the rule of law, and we are going through moderation”, justified Garamendi.
He did not want to go deeper into the words of Yolanda Díaz. “I will not enter into party politics”, but “institutions and forms must be respected. We will work within the constitutional order”, and he concluded: “Amnesty. Do we agree? No, to be clear.”
The PP also met yesterday with the PNB through its spokespersons in Congress, Cuca Gamarra and Aitor Esteban. The Basque spokesman revealed that the president of his party, Andoni Ortuzar, and that of the PP, Feijóo, met on September 7 and spoke again last week. Esteban reiterated to Gamarra that “there is no margin for the investiture”, even if there is no Vox in the Government.
