The containment dam that United We Can intend to erect in the council of ministers against the “militarist escalation” announced by Pedro Sánchez during the recent NATO summit has failed even before being erected.
Not even 24 hours had passed since the Minister of Consumption, Alberto Garzón, announced the foreseeable vote against the purple ministers to the increase in defense spending when Joan Subirats (En Comú) distanced himself yesterday from the official line demanded by the group parliamentary.
“The hypothetical situation that the defense of Europe and Western values ??was in the hands of the United States and that European countries could remain calm without worrying about defense has been quite dismantled,” argued the head of Universities in an interview in La 2 and Radio 4.
Subirats refuses to enter into an arms race logic, but believes that “Spain is justified in assuming more military costs in the face of increased international threats and hostilities” derived from the war in Ukraine.
Up to what point? The minister did not want to assess whether raising arms investment to 2% of GDP is appropriate or exaggerated but, whatever the final figure, he dropped his intention to breach the purple vote discipline when the time comes.
Snubbed, incidentally, to the general secretary of Podemos, Ione Belarra, who has insisted in recent hours on focusing efforts and resources to “expand social rights” and not the “tanks.”
Open the melon within the coalition government, no one doubts that Pedro Sánchez’s commitment to NATO and the European Union to increase common economic resources, together with the expansion of the Rota base, will mark the next debate on the state of the nation expected in a few weeks.
But far from waiting to accept the criticism that will come from the opposition, the President of the Government has opted for an offensive strategy in the form of an order. Proposing to the Podemos ministers whether they will be able to continue being part of the Government if they vote against issues related to the defense of the country.
Something calmer was the reaction yesterday of the Minister of Defense, Margarita Robles, who invited the coalition partner to analyze “without prejudice”, since without security there is no freedom and citizens cannot enjoy services such as education or health.
“It is not a reality of flowers and peace, it is a very harsh reality” (…). “Any missile that Russia can launch can reach Madrid, the situation of vulnerability that the whole world is experiencing is worrying. I wish we weren’t in this context, but we are and we have to defend ourselves and work for peace, ”she declared in an interview on La Sexta.
Meanwhile, in an interested background, the second vice president and Minister of Labor, Yolanda Díaz, cleared her agenda from yesterday -the second time in a week- but took advantage of social networks to reveal the Sumar logo, the platform on which will articulate the announced process of listening to the citizens to specify if, definitively, she presents herself as a candidate for the Presidency in the next general elections.
It will not be until next Friday when Díaz officially presents Sumar in a massive event in Madrid, but the main lines of his project highlight the “promotion of democratic commitment and the participation of citizens in public life”, as well as “fostering and strengthening citizen and civil society participation to improve democratic quality and human development”.
Díaz has avoided these days to pronounce on the arms dichotomy, but has confirmed his participation, together with the leadership of Podemos, in a summer course at the Complutense University of Madrid (UCM) where the formation will emphasize his speech in defense of peace before the current war in the Ukraine.
Sources from the confederal space defend the reconnection of both sectors that, despite the poor results obtained, already shared agenda and rallies during the last Andalusian campaign.
What is not clear is whether Podemos will return the visit to Díaz at the launch of his project next Friday, at a time when the open gap between PSOE and United We Can in the Executive, threatens more to subtract than join the coalition government.
