Neither the government coalition between the PSOE and Unidas Podemos is going to break, nor is the course of a legislature propped up by the investiture bloc, especially the ERC and the PNV, going to blow up. At least, according to the claim and determination of Pedro Sánchez. But already in the final stretch of his current term, and with the imminence of the intense electoral calendar, everything is more complicated for him. Much more.
Yesterday’s session offered a hyper-realistic photo of the turbulence and troubles that the Government is going through, with multiple open internal and external fronts, despite the political and economic stability that having approvals should bring it, for the third consecutive year in due time and form, and with a comfortable absolute majority, their last general State budgets for this 2023.
A photo that reflects the intensification of the internal clash suffered by the relations between the PSOE and United We Can, on account of the last great legislative initiatives of the mandate. And also the division that exists regarding this legislative agenda within the heterogeneous and transversal parliamentary majority that supports the legislature, which includes everything from the ERC and the PNV, to EH Bildu and the PDECat, Más País or Compromís.
In the background of the agitated image of yesterday’s parliamentary day, out of focus, you can sense the current leader of the Popular Party, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, convinced that at the end of the year, in the December general elections, his time will come after Consummation of a change in the political cycle in Spain.
The PP bench in Congress, precisely, exploded yesterday with joy for its symbolic victory by managing to see its first disapproval of a Pedro Sánchez minister approved by the legislature: the head of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska. In the previous legislature, the main opposition party managed to fail the then Justice Minister, Dolores Delgado, up to three times – twice in Congress, one in the Senate. And against Marlaska they had already tried up to a dozen times. No success until yesterday.
The motion promoted by the PP added 173 yeses, only 160 noes and 15 abstentions, and was therefore approved. Far from the Chamber, where he still does not have a seat, Feijóo assured that he had nothing, “on a personal level”, against the Minister of the Interior. But he did denounce his actions both in the Melilla tragedy and –although it was not the reason for the disapproval yesterday– for his prison policy with ETA prisoners.
The questioned management of Grande-Marlaska of the tragedy that occurred at the Melilla fence, on June 24, 2022, in which at least 23 migrants died trying to enter Spanish territory, together with the PSOE’s repeated refusal to open a commission of investigation in this regard in Congress, yesterday aroused the unusual unanimity of the Spanish right-wing -the PP, Vox and Ciudadanos- and of the Catalan pro-independence formations -ERC, Junts and the CUP- to condemn the minister. In the case of ERC, it must not be forgotten, in addition, that the PSC promoted last November the disapproval of the Minister of the Interior, Joan Ignasi Elena. The abstention in which some of the usual partners of the Government finally settled, such as the PNV, EH Bildu and Compromís, tipped the balance yesterday, they were not willing to save face for the minister and allowed the parliamentary punishment of Marlaska.
Unidas Podemos, which also harshly criticizes Marlaska’s performance in the Melilla drama, yesterday avoided delving into the clash in the government coalition triggered by the reform of the only yes is yes law and voted with the PSOE against the disapproval of the Minister. But the Executive only managed to also add the votes of PDECat, Más País and Teruel Existe, and the PP motion triumphed. The investiture block was, therefore, very divided in this vote.
Behind the scenes of a discreet negotiation, the PSOE continued the operation yesterday to try to save its reform of the sexual freedom law despite the opposition of United We Can. The Minister of the Presidency, Félix Bolaños – in charge together with Minister María Jesús Montero of political negotiation so that the socialist initiative comes to fruition – confirmed yesterday his willingness to dialogue with all groups, including the PP. “I am going to speak with all the parliamentary groups, because I want, as always, that all the initiatives go ahead,” Bolaños admitted in an interview on Onda Cero.
“This law is imperfect,” acknowledged the minister, due to the unwanted effects of its application. The reform promoted by the PSOE, on the other hand, is in his opinion “impeccable from a legal point of view.” His conversations with the groups, he assured, will pivot on the basis that the consent of the woman “is not touched” and that the penalties for sexual offenders must be increased. “With these consensuses, I have no doubt that we will be able to build a majority to modify the law,” Bolaños confided.
For now, the PSOE has already found an ally in the PNV to reform the law of only yes is yes and put pressure on United We Can. The spokesman for the Basque nationalists in Congress, Aitor Esteban, announced yesterday on ETB that his group will support the consideration of the socialist reform. “We do not understand the stubbornness of Minister Irene Montero in not recognizing the error of not putting a transitory provision in the law,” warned Esteban.
Another vote registered yesterday in Congress, that of the controversial Animal Welfare law that was the object until the last breath of another hard internal struggle between the PSOE and Unidas Podemos, also demonstrated the plight of the Government and the division in the legislature bloc . Although on this occasion the norm was saved by the minimum. The minister promoting the norm, Ione Belarra, was unable to get the PSOE to get out of the extemporaneous amendment that it approved with PP and Vox to exclude hunting dogs from the general protection of canids against mistreatment, but in the rostrum she expressed with sincerity that combination of helplessness and satisfaction: “We have come as far as we can”. The situation was difficult: the PSOE alone has amended two of the star laws of the two Podemos ministries in the same week. But Social Rights did not want to give up the improvements established by law. Unidas Podemos could have made it decline, and it felt legitimized by socialist disloyalty, but it preferred not to torpedo its own rule. Yesterday’s votes confirm that the partners wield their foils in a duel without death. But the public holds its breath, as they fight on the edge of a cliff.
