Once Vox’s new motion of no confidence against Pedro Sánchez has been registered, this time with the veteran Ramón Tamames as an alternative candidate for the presidency of the Government, all the actors on the political scene begin to design their strategies and show their cards. Or, just the opposite, to hide them.
This is what the Chief Executive himself is already doing. And not to minimize or ignore a parliamentary meeting encouraged by the ultra-right to which it grants “the highest institutional relevance”, but precisely to feed their expectations and give all possible prominence to this debate until it is substantiated, as opposed to the strategy of Alberto Núñez Feijóo, which is exactly the opposite.
In Moncloa, thus, they preserve two calculated unknowns. The first is the date that the president of Congress, the socialist Meritxell Batet, will formally determine to hold the plenary session of the motion of censure, in agreement with Sánchez. The second is whether the President of the Government himself will intervene in the debate, to confront his political project with the one presented by “the right and the extreme right, or the extreme right and the right, both ride, ride so much”, according to Minister María Jesús. Montero, Deputy Secretary General of the PSOE.
Neither Montero nor yesterday the government spokesperson, the socialist Isabel Rodríguez, wanted to expressly confirm that Sánchez himself will take the floor in the debate to defend his management and his political project to confront him with that of Vox and the PP. “Indeed, I have not answered it,” smiled the minister spokesperson to highlight the unknown as to whether the chief executive will intervene in the debate.
He justified it precisely because of respect for the processing of this constitutional initiative. “Respect for the motion of censure also implies respect for the times. We are still talking about the future”, argued Isabel Rodríguez. The first step will be for the Congress Table to qualify the motion registered by Vox next Tuesday. And in Moncloa and in the socialist parliamentary group they are rigorously silent about both unknowns.
Some think that this gives more scope to a debate that they consider benefits Sánchez and harms Feijóo. Although in the leadership of the PSOE they allege that the president of the Government still does not want to reveal his letters: “There has been no talk of the moment or who,” they admit. “Nothing at all”, corroborate socialist parliamentary sources.
No one doubts, however, that it will be Sánchez himself who will speak in the debate. But in the Moncloa they warn that, for now, they will not confirm anything. “Every day has its eagerness”, they slip away, to feed expectations and so that in the coming weeks there is no talk of anything else, to highlight “the role” that they attribute to Feijóo in this motion of censure led by the extreme right.
The leader of the PP, on the other hand, maintains a strategy diametrically opposed to that of Sánchez, so as not to give greater relevance to Vox’s motion of censure. Feijóo cleared up, first of all, any unknowns on his part: neither will he attend the debate in Congress, despite the fact that as a senator he could do so, nor will the PP vote in favor. But neither was it against it, as his predecessor, Pablo Casado, decided before the motion of censure against Sánchez that Santiago Abascal defended in October 2020.
Feijóo insisted yesterday on calling out Vox’s initiative as a “parliamentary show” and a “little political theatre”. And he reiterated that the PP will abstain so as not to “share paternity” with a motion of censure “destined to fail.”
And the rest of the political actors also define their respective strategies. Esquerra once again demanded that the investiture block groups not participate or intervene in what Gabriel Rufián described as a “circus of four or five tracks.” Although the Republicans will debate internally what role to play in the debate. “Do not participate in their mandangas” is the premise with which ERC faces the Vox initiative, in the face of the claim of “not laundering the ideas and policies” of the extreme right. “We respect the mechanism of motion of censure and Tamames; The question is if he is respecting himself, ”Rufian settled.
But United We Can not yet set a position on the Esquerra proposal. Its spokesman, Pablo Echenique, acknowledged yesterday that there are “different opinions” on the matter within the confederal group. The PNV spokesman, Aitor Esteban, guaranteed instead that his party will intervene in plenary session: “All parliamentary procedures deserve a reply,” he claimed. Ferran Bel (PDECat) in turn advanced that he will intervene in the debate. Although in a “short” way.
In the PSOE, at the same time, they encourage all the investiture groups to intervene and not “ridicule” this debate. Because that, they say, is precisely what gives wings to Vox’s “anti-politics”.
