There will be a meeting between Pedro Sánchez and Alberto Núñez Feijóo. The location has not yet been confirmed, but the President of the Government is willing to accept the proposal of the leader of the PP to be in Congress, although he expressed his surprise that a meeting that is held at the request of the President of the Government is not held in La Moncloa. The time will also be decided shortly.
This was stressed by Sánchez in his last speech before the plenary session of Congress, but not before attacking Feijóo and the leadership of his party, and reproaching him for his “permanent tantrum”, in his opinion for “not having accepted the electoral result.”
What Sánchez did not refer to is whether he is willing to talk about the things that Feijóo wants to talk about, starting with the amnesty, and he referred to the three issues that he had already said in public that he wanted to talk about with the leader of the opposition, renewal of the Judiciary, regional financing and modification of article 49 of the Constitution.
The President of the Government stopped at the renewal of the Judiciary, to tell Feijóo that if he wants to “impose his model” he should “win the elections and build a majority”, because the rest, he said, “is a lack of democratic culture”, because “The Spaniards voted five months ago, accept it, get over it, because the world does not end with a defeat. They have lost the elections, they are in the opposition, accept it.”
Early in the morning, the PP had announced that Alberto Núñez Feijóo had sent a letter to Pedro Sánchez in which he agreed to meet with him next Friday, one of the dates that La Moncloa had offered to the PP, at the same time that He sent a list of the issues he wanted to discuss, among them the amnesty, the deterioration of public institutions; the accusations against the judges, by Junts, of prevarication, or the motion of censure in Pamplona.
From the tribune of Congress, the President of the Government acknowledged the letter, as his cabinet had communicated to him, and although he did not specify that he accepted the date of December 22, he did show his satisfaction with the change in attitude of the President of the PP, “which has rectified its efforts to stand me up,” but said it was willing to address the issues that the PP leader wants to address.
Pedro Sánchez, however, did not abandon his reproaches to Feijóo: “I don’t think anyone could understand that for the first time in history the head of the opposition refused to attend” a meeting with the President of the Government. The President of the Government insisted on three issues to be discussed: renewal of the Council of the Judiciary, reform of article 49 of the Constitution and the development of a new regional financing system.
The President of the Government stressed his willingness to dialogue “whenever he wants, however he wants, about what he wants and where he wants”, but without insults. An attitude that blames the leader of the PP on his aspiration “that the electoral results would have been different, but the Spanish have spoken”, which makes it not logical “to have dialogue and understanding blocked for four years.”
In an already harsh speech about the Spanish presidency of the Union, Feijóo and Sánchez exchanged harsh reproaches. The president of the PP responded to Sánchez’s intervention in which he said that they could speak when they wanted, where they wanted and how they wanted by saying that “as they want, without a mediator; whenever they want, on Friday; wherever they want, not in Geneva, in Congress ; and with an official agenda”. Furthermore, Feijóo warned Sánchez that he is not going to allow that while he is submissive to those who want to “break the country”, he is “ruthless with those who defend it.”
Also the president of Vox, Santiago Abascal, referred to the meeting, to consider it a mistake for the president of the PP to agree to attend the meeting with Feijóo, because with his meeting, he said, “he is legitimizing” other meetings, those of the President of the Government with Carles Puigdemont.
The specific agenda that Feijóo lists in his letter to Pedro Sánchez highlights “Equality of Spaniards and respect for the rule of law: Amnesty Law; institutional deterioration: Council of State and Prosecutor’s Office; depoliticization of the public media : RTVE and EFE; measures to guarantee judicial independence; position regarding the judicial prevarication denounced by PSOE, Junts and ERC, and defense of the Judiciary against harassment by Government partners; information on the negotiations held in Geneva between the Government and Junts and ERC; information about the tax increases agreed with Sumar and the aid plans for citizens to face the effects of inflation; defense of the principle of solidarity and the essential multilateralism to face the distribution of resources public: debt forgiveness and transfer of 100% of taxes to certain territories; paralysis of the motion of censure in Pamplona with Bildu, as well as the bill that seeks to decriminalize the glorification of terrorism and the attack on national symbols.
Likewise, Feijóo wants to talk about the urgent modification of article 49 of the Constitution under the conditions already agreed upon in the last legislature, which include written guarantees that the Government’s partners will not request a constitutional referendum with new modifications.
That is to say, the agenda sent by Feijóo to La Moncloa includes, although formulated differently, the issues that the President of the Government publicly said he wanted to address: renewal of the Judiciary, regional financing and reform of article 49 of the Constitution. The renewal of the Judiciary is included by the PP in the heading “measures to guarantee judicial independence”, since the popular demand that the law of election of the members of the Council be reformed at the same time that the governing body of the judges; Regional financing would be included in the section defending the principle of solidarity and the essential multilateralism to deal with the distribution of public resources; and the reform of article 49 of the Constitution, which Feijóo expressly cites and on which agreement is easier.
In the letter, Feijóo accepts the date, December 22, and leaves the time and place to the President of the Government’s choice, as long as “it is in national territory.” Both in the letter and in statements upon arrival at Congress this morning, Feijóo highlights that ten days have passed since the call from the Prime Minister’s cabinet to the PP, when he was asked for the agenda, but faced with the silence of La Moncloa has decided to send this letter with its agenda, and is waiting to know whether or not the president agrees to talk about these matters.
“We have waited a reasonable amount of time waiting for you to attend to this request,” he says in the letter, in reference to the request for a written agenda, but “after a week with no news, I consider it essential to move forward with this absolutely ordinary requirement.” and easy to satisfy”.
In the letter he also makes clear his willingness to attend the meeting, which is now in the hands of the President of the Government to call: “I reiterate my willingness to attend the meeting,” says Feijóo, and points out that he does so “out of respect for what that represents the Presidency of the Government, my intention to preserve institutional decorum – unfortunately damaged in many other areas – and my willingness to convey to you face to face, the opinion shared by the majority of citizens on matters of enormous importance for our nation.
