For the PP it is a matter of principle, and the fact that the Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, does not deign to inform the leader of the main opposition party about the agenda and objectives of the European presidency that Spain will hold from 1 July, it is a question that the popular ones are not going to pass.
To the point that the PP MEPs have rejected the meeting that the Foreign Minister, José Manuel Albares, intends to hold next week in Strasbourg with the Spanish parliamentarians, if the Prime Minister does not call Alberto Núñez Feijóo beforehand and reports on all the extremes of the European presidency.
This disinformation to the president of the PP, is something that Alberto Núñez Feijóo himself has been denouncing for months, and it is a denunciation that has increased in recent days, especially during his stay in Sweden, a country that holds the presidency of the Union. After meeting in Stockholm with the prime minister, the PP leader came to denounce that he had more information about the Swedish presidency than about the Spanish one.
And this is what the spokesperson for the PP in the European Parliament, Dolors Montserrat, raises in a letter addressed to Minister Albares, in response to the invitation to MEPs next week. The PP parliamentarians will not attend if there has not been a meeting between Sánchez and Feijóo beforehand to discuss the European presidency.
In the letter signed by Montserrat, the popular spokesperson stressed that “it would have been desirable that before these meetings that you propose, the President of the Government would have addressed the main opposition party in Spain to outline the main axes and objectives of the next Presidency of the EU in the second half of 2023 and thus be able, from the dialogue, to negotiate the corresponding proposals for such a relevant period, as we have always offered”.
For this reason, Dolors Montserrat assures the foreign minister that the PP MEPs will be delighted to meet with him, but if that prior conversation takes place: “We will be delighted to hear about your approach when your proposal has been discussed in a prior meeting between the President of the Government and the President of the main opposition party” and informs him that “for the purposes of balancing agendas, we are waiting for them to tell us when they plan to hold that meeting and we will be available to meet later”.
The PP spokesperson in the European Parliament also reminded Albares that “the Popular Party is a profoundly Europeanist party, as it has shown throughout its history, and in this context we maintain an unequivocal commitment to the Spanish Presidency of the EU, a presidency that belongs to the whole of Spaniards and not only to the Government”, he stresses.
Feijóo has urged the Government of Spain in recent weeks to act with transparency in its objectives and priorities and has asked Sánchez to reach an agreement with the opposition on “the big issues” on the agenda and report to the Chambers, “as in any democratic State â€.
According to the PP, “unfortunately, the precedents are not good” because Sánchez has not conveyed anything to the PP about “his erratic foreign policy, both in terms of Spain’s traditional relations with Morocco, Algeria, the Maghreb or the United Nations â€, as well as on State policies.
