The atmosphere of anger in the Congress of Deputies has moved for a few hours today to Strasbourg, where the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, had to take stock of the Spanish presidency of the Council of the EU and which has become a kind of plenary session national, rather than European. In the presence of Carles Puigdemont, Sánchez defended the amnesty law in Strasbourg, which he justified by the EU’s calls for political dialogue in 2017, and warned that the “real threat” to democracy in Spain is not him but the alliances of the Popular Party with Vox, whose MEPs have taken advantage of their respective interventions to charge against the “attacks” on the rule of law promoted by the alliance between the PSOE and Sumar.
“Mr. Weber, I question you directly,” the socialist leader said in his turn to respond, amidst boos, to the president of the European People’s Party. “Do you feel comfortable being complicit in this threat?” “Do you know who the allies of the PP in Spain are?” he asked before reciting the extremist ideas of this formation about Europe, taking his argument to the extreme by reaching evoke Nazi Germany. “Vox is recovering the names on the streets and squares of Spain of people linked to the dictatorship. Would this also be your plan for Germany, returning the names of those responsible for the Third Reich to the streets and squares of Berlin?” Sánchez said. to Weber between expressions of protests by the MEPs, including kicking, which is rare in the institution.
The President of the Government’s speech before the European Parliament should have taken place in July, at the beginning of the semester of the Spanish presidency of the Council of the Union, but the holding of elections forced it to be postponed and it has finally been proposed more as a moment to take stock. ” of the same, although from the first moment it has had a strong national aroma. “The wait has been worth it, Europe has gained a great ally in this progressive Government” that will “defend European principles and values,” Sánchez assured at the start of his intervention. The alternative to the progressive coalition that he leads “was an alliance between the right and the ultra-right” that sought to “repeal progress” and “reapply failed neoliberal recipes.”
Just after the intervention of the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, unexpectedly, loud barking was heard in the chamber coming from a service animal belonging to a visitor who was following the session from the gallery, although heard from Spain They evoked the nickname ‘Sanxe dog’ with which the opposition baptized Sánchez. From his seat, Carles Puigdemont was waiting for his turn, closer than ever to Sánchez since the 1-O referendum. In his speech, which lasted just over a minute, the former president called out Sánchez for the non-compliance, taking advantage of the European key, and reproached him for failing to approve the official status of Catalan in the EU after warning that the Broken promises generate distrust.
Beyond the coincidence in the chamber of Sánchez and Puigdemont – smiling as they starred in the amnesty for much of the debate –, which is the first to occur in the European Chamber, the details have also been important. The former president has avoided greeting the head of the central Executive and Minister José Manuel Albares, whom a few weeks ago he thanked clearly and specifically for his efforts to make Catalan official. At the end of the intervention, which was in Spanish, he went the opposite way to Sánchez so that there was no greeting between the two.
The situation has been different, however, after the speech by ERC MEP Jordi Solé, who did greet Sánchez, like other Spanish MEPs. The Republican, both in Spanish and Catalan, has also referred to the issue of Catalan. Former councilor Clara Ponsatí had done the same thing on the previous day’s point, with a staging and a silence as a complaint, in a desert chamber, similar to the one Sánchez had during his initial intervention. It was at the end, in the reply turn, when the Chamber filled up every time there were votes right after.
After Von der Leyen’s laudatory words about the settings chosen by the Spanish presidency for its major events and how “it has managed to maintain focus on the major priorities” despite the “extremely difficult circumstances” in which it was held, in reference to the worsening of violence in the Middle East, it was the turn of Manfred Weber, president of the EPP and leader of his group in the European Parliament, who after reproaching Sánchez for some failed objectives of the Spanish presidency, such as closing a trade agreement with Mercosur has started to speak directly about amnesty.
“He has talked about democracy and one of his basic principles is to tell the truth to people before the elections. He cannot promise that he will not give an amnesty until three days before the elections, spending five years in power saying no. is constitutional and then applaud it,” Weber launched. The amnesty law “is a risk for the Spanish Constitution,” proclaimed the German politician, who has warned against the newly formed investigation commissions in Spain for the pacts between the PSOE and Junts and has warned that he will monitor their activities because ” “They go against the separation of powers.”
The leader of the EPP, a close ally of Alberto Núñez Feijóo, recalled the arrival to power in Poland of his candidate, Donald Tusk, who is going to return the rule of law to Poland. “We are proud of it and we will do the same in Spain in a few months,” Weber proclaimed. “Pedro Sánchez’s amnesty is selling the dignity of Spain for seven votes to be able to govern,” said Dolors Montserrat (PP), who has attacked the arguments of concord used by the PSOE to defend the amnesty to explain it by “the sole personal interest of a politician without principles or words who destroys everything.
“Lessons on the rule of law, none, and even less so when your party has been blocking the renewal of the General Council of the Judiciary for five years,” the leader of the European socialist group, Iratxe García, who has criticized the EPP alliances, responded directly to Weber. with ultra-right forces that “only has one project, anti-Europe”, and has celebrated that the PSOE “has stopped the reactionary wave in Spain”. “In the face of the tyrant, permanent mobilization,” Jorge Buxadé (Vox) has promised, to whom his group, European Conservatives and Reformists, has given the first speaking turn to enhance his prominence. “His narcissism has ruined the Spanish presidency.”
More than “promising progress”, given that his speech comes a few days before the end of the Spanish presidency of the Council of the Union, Sánchez wanted to review the “achievements” achieved during the Spanish presidency, since the approval of a pioneering law on Intelligence Artificial, the nature restoration directive, the reform of the electricity market, the agreements to reduce emissions from the industry or social advances such as the European disability card, in addition to the push for EU enlargement that occurred at the summit from Granada. “I started the presidency with a trip to Kyiv and I would like to close it with an agreement to start negotiations with Ukraine,” said Sánchez with his sights set on the European Council that starts tomorrow in Brussels, an appointment complicated by the threat of a veto. from Hungarian leader Viktor Orbán to the approval of new financial aid to Ukraine or the start of accession talks with this country.
Sánchez has won applause from the chamber by citing the agreement reached at COP28 this morning in Dubai and, above all, by demanding a more ambitious position on the crisis in the Middle East. “If we want the world to respect us as a relevant geopolitical actor and for citizens to be proud of our actions” and to see that European values ??are not just words, “we must speak loud and clear with a single voice.” The EU, he said, must firmly condemn the Hamas attacks and defend Israel’s right to exist and defend itself. “But with the same conviction and values ??we must say enough! Enough to the death of innocent civilians in Gaza, thousands of boys and girls in particular.”
The alternative to the progressive coalition that he leads, Sánchez insisted without citing the PP or Vox, “was an alliance between the right and the ultra-right” that sought to “repeal progress” and “reapply failed neoliberal recipes.” “These political forces – he has said about the extreme right – repudiate or ignore all the progress made over the last decades. They fear the future and only want to flee to a glorious past that never existed and to which it is impossible to return” .
