R and Vox are the protagonists of the parliamentary spectacle of the week with their extravagant motion of censure, but in Congress parallel battles will be fought with the ultra-right seeking a peculiar institutional approval if the electoral whistle blows and Alberto Núñez Feijóo is the flutist. The leader of the PP does not have a seat in the Lower House and, although the regulations allow him to be there as a senator, he will not be a passive spectator in the front row of the debate. If Vox and Pedro Sánchez launch themselves against the popular leader, they will do so over an absentee. Thus, it is time to turn our gaze to the other group and, in turn, to the European delegation that is investigating the Pegasus case in vain.
There is no doubt that Sánchez will emerge victorious from a vote that preserves his presidency but not his future. It is up to the president to decide what image he wants to leave for posterity of the most outrageous motion of censure in the history of democracy: empathy with the citizen in economic conflicts, arrogance towards the far right, contempt for the PP , thanks to partners, a little bit of everything…
What will not cover up the loose vote – despite the abstention of the PP – against the heterodox programmatic proposal of Tamames and Vox is the sentimental crisis that exists within the coalition Government; the crisis of confidence with the majority of the investiture that, despite everything, has propped up the legislature, and the separation of all of them without reaching the divorce that the electoral race forces them to. In ten days, the governmental schism with the reform of the only yes is yes law was followed by the schism with ERC and Bildu with the gag law, the rearmament of the progressive troops with the pension pact and the holy let’s go back with the Housing law. The result of the motion of no confidence will close wounds on the scoreboard of the chamber, but the calendar imposes hostilities on the way to the polls.
The censure motion adds to the electoral strategy the difficulty of how the rest of the political forces relate to the ultra-right. In Catalonia, ERC is promoting a municipal health cordon in Vox, PP, Cs and Valents that it wants the other parties to subscribe to. An “anti-fascist” commitment that draws from the past, since it was the votes of Manuel Valls for Ada Colau that wrested the mayorship of Barcelona from Ernest Maragall. The Republicans now want Jaume Collboni and Xavier Trias to join the initiative “or they will not want to distance themselves from hate speech”. The PSC is not a friend of sanitary cordons and remembers that in the Catalan election campaign it was the pro-independence parties that vetoed the PSC. Until Pere Aragonès agrees on the budgets with Salvador Illa and Junts recovers the socio-vergence to give meaning to his opposition to the ERC minority Government.
Vox is not the opponent of the Republicans, but the PSC. The ultra-right did not present itself in Catalonia in the last municipal elections and the run in Catalans led it to win in… Vilamalla and La Pobla de Mafumet (5,218 inhabitants between the two towns). Where the Republicans have to sprint is with the Socialists. The race started this week. Gabriel Rufián will perform his “the Government can’t get away with it scot-free” on Tuesday, and the ERC script includes reprimanding Sánchez for a certain “complexity” in front of the right. “That of the lesser evil, that of ‘we are the best among all the worst’, there comes a time when it no longer applies,” says the ERC spokesperson in Congress. And exploit the Pegasus espionage with Pere Aragonès in Madrid as a victim.
Sanchez answers. He accuses ERC of making a mistake in the “electoral calculation” with the gag law and Illa chooses his targets with tact. He started the legislature pointing to the management of the Mossos and Catalan in education and now he is criticizing the Government for its reaction to the drought and furage in the unforced error of ERC in Santa Coloma de Gramenet with the promise of ‘a second home for the elderly. Despite everything, the maxim in ERC, with municipal veto included, is that neither actively nor passively will they facilitate governments with the ultra-right. You can raise the price of future supports to Sánchez but not withdraw them if the numbers come out. And if not… Now it’s time to veto, Barcelona, ??the metropolitan area, Lleida, Tarragona… and forget about the lesser evil.
