Everything now happens in Europe. The stability of the Spanish Government. The credibility of the opposition. Budget priorities. Defense spending. The growing defense industry, getting stronger. The renewal of the General Council of the Judiciary, a key issue in a country that will continue to see figures from the two major parties in the dock for very ugly cases: Koldo and Kitchen. The pacification of the agrarian protests depends on the European Commission, with possible consequences in the relationship with Morocco depending on the decisions that are adopted. The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), based in Luxembourg, will ultimately depend on the final legitimization of the Amnesty law, architrave of the legislature. Europe, Europe. Saint Ursula, pray for us.
We could say that since the Stabilization Plan of 1959 the fate of Spain has always depended, to one degree or another, on the European Community, but this link, never questioned by Spanish society, now takes on a very specific intensity . It is no longer the economy, with its general lines and regulations. It is no longer subsidies, grants and recovery funds. It’s not the controls anymore. They are no longer the general framework of a European institutional policy that Spain has never rejected. Now we are talking about the transfer to Europe of the kitchen of domestic politics.
The coalition Government has negotiated the stability of the legislature with Junts and ERC in Belgium and Switzerland, with the presence of international mediators. The Popular Party uses the presidency of the Petitions Committee of the European Parliament to provoke debates on the maximum number of Spanish issues, in front of the often astonished gaze of its community colleagues. “A Spanish-Spanish debate”, they say in Brussels and Strasbourg.
In Brussels, socialist minister Félix Bolaños and Esteban González Pons, deputy general secretary of the Popular Party, have begun to meet to try to reach an agreement for the renewal of the CGPJ, under the watchful eye of Didier Reynders. European Commissioner for Justice. Future interpretations of the amnesty that Congress will approve this week may depend on the final drafting of a report by the Venice Commission, an advisory body of the Council of Europe.
More wood on the fire. In Bucharest (Romania), Alberto Núñez Feijóo has just asked Von der Leyen to cut off the tap of confidence in Pedro Sánchez, to punish him, to leave him without oxygen, to leave him unmanageable during the next European mandate. We will support you to continue presiding over the Commission, but you must break with Sánchez. This was the message that the leader of the Spanish People’s Party conveyed to the candidate who has never been to the liking of Manfred Weber, president of the European People’s Party. Feijóo wants to shut off the gas in Moncloa and this can only be done from Brussels. Saint Ursula, ora pro nobis.
Sánchez, today at his lowest point since May 2018, objectively weakened by the Koldo scandal and by the tortuous approval of the Amnesty law, does not utter a single word that could seem like a reproach to the president of the commission Saint Ursula, refugium peccatoru m , ora pro nobis . Josep Borrell, PSOE’s likely candidate for the European elections in June, has allowed himself some criticism of Von der Leyen for his strong support for Israel. Sánchez, who announced yesterday that he plans to propose to the Spanish Parliament very soon the recognition of the Palestinian State, the last thing he will do will be to criticize it, since both will have to negotiate very important matters in the coming months, once they have been held the June elections.
The composition of the future Commission will have to be negotiated, a candidate will have to be found to replace the Belgian liberal Charles Michel in the presidency of the European Council – don’t lose sight of this vacant position, don’t lose sight of him – and already the Strategic Plan Horizon Europe 2025-2027 is starting to be discussed. The sherpas of the respective national governments will soon meet in Brussels to address the definition of this plan, subjected to the pressure of a demonized international situation, the growing protectionist demands and the increasingly rampant warmongering discourse, which now he speaks of the imminence of a war between Europe and Russia.
In order not to be isolated after the summer, Sánchez needs to maintain a minimal relationship of trust with Von der Leyen. To ensure a smooth re-election, the current president of the Commission needs the support of Sánchez, today the most active figure in European social democracy, despite the density and intensity of her domestic problems. Both are needed and perhaps that is why Von der Leyen did not mention the amnesty to the Catalan independence activists during the speech in front of the audience of the European People’s Party congress, which met a few days ago in Bucharest. Weber delivered a fiery speech against Sanchez. Núñez Feijóo asked the candidate for a gesture: he asked her to give the thumbs down, and she did not grant it. This is the situation when the European Parliament elections are only three months away.
Everything is now happening in Europe and the presidential elections in the United States, during the first week of November. The world is being redefined, Macron now wants to fight with Russia and today there is a vote in Portugal, a modest and endearing country that spurred the democratization of Spain in April 1974, now fifty years ago, when the course of history prayed pro nobis.
