Pedro Sánchez yesterday denounced the “pressure” exerted by the PP on King Felipe VI to propose Alberto Núñez Feijóo as a candidate in a first investiture session. In addition to emphasizing that the winner of the July 23 elections does not have the support to form a parliamentary majority that will take him to Moncloa, the PSOE general secretary demanded that the Monarch be left out of the political debate that is taking place developing in the Congress of Deputies.
“This is not the time for pressure on the head of state or for magical cabals; it’s time for parliamentary democracy”, proclaimed Sánchez in his first speech of the political year, in a meeting with elected socialist deputies and senators held in the Lower House that served to formalize his proposal for candidates for the presidency of the Congress, Francina Armengol, and to a vice-presidency of the Senate, Guillermo Fernández Vara. The general secretary also confirmed Patxi López and Eva Granados as spokespeople for the socialist groups in each hemicycle.
With his allusion to the “pressures” on the King, the acting president of the Spanish Government wanted to react, although without mentioning it, to some words of the general coordinator of the PP, Elías Bendodo, in which he raised a “quick” investiture of Feijóo: “We are convinced that his majesty the King will propose Feijóo for the investiture and we hope to have the support to put the Government into operation as soon as possible”, defended the leader of Genoa on Tuesday.
The leader of the PSOE also made official yesterday in his parliamentary office his candidacy for an investiture confirming that in the round of consultations he will raise with Felipe VI his willingness to be appointed candidate. “I will request the confidence of the Parliament to form a progressive government that consolidates the Spain of progress and the social Spain that our citizens demand”, he confirmed to his parliamentarians.
Sánchez wanted to stay out of the head of state’s decision. “We don’t decide the candidate, that belongs to the King and that’s why we criticize the PP”, defend socialist sources. Being the first candidate for an investiture designated by Felipe VI is important, because at that time, if it is not possible to achieve a parliamentary majority, the two-month clock would be activated to dissolve the Courts and hold new elections.
Socialists consider that the Constitution must be respected at all times and for all processes, also for consultations with the King and candidate proposals for an investiture. Sánchez therefore asked the PP to demonstrate “if it is able to understand and respect our parliamentary system” and to accept “something as basic and legitimate as the one who gets the most support governs Spain”.
The acting president cited the Constitution in his speech: “We will ask those who boast of constitutionalism to respect article 99”, the precept that regulates how the candidate for an investiture is designated and how the Congress of Deputies elects the President of the Government. “What is clear is that the PP does not have the support for an investiture”, proclaim the socialists.
The PSOE also did not have the numbers closed yesterday to achieve a majority in the first big vote that will be held on Thursday to define the configuration of the Congress Bureau, but Sánchez did want to advance some general lines of his project to attempt an investiture: “To build coexistence and overcome the conflicts that afflicted our society in the past”. He advanced that it will be “a legislature full of challenges and also opportunities; of much dialogue and hopefully many agreements, of progress and no setbacks”, he pointed out.
Sánchez is trying to add more votes in these hours than the PP in today’s voting. He needs 172, one more than the PP, if nothing moves. The general secretary of the PSOE emphasized yesterday that “the reality has become very clear, and that is that the PP has dynamited all the bridges that lead to pacts with any other political force other than Vox”. “They wanted a plebiscite and they had it: they lost on July 23,” he added.
The head of the acting Executive recovered the reference he used in the electoral face-to-face with Feijóo about the fact that the PP and Vox wanted Spain to enter “a tunnel of dark time” and emphasized that the PSOE it is the political force that has achieved “the most important advances in rights and freedoms” with “great presidents of the Government such as Felipe González and José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero”.
