The phrases that Borja Sémper interspersed in Basque in his speech in the plenary session that debated the proposed reform of the Congress regulations to allow the use of co-official languages ??have become the object of criticism in some sectors of the popular group and middle positions of the party. Criticisms from which the consulted barons distance themselves, who share the approaches of the management, but who have highlighted a certain dissatisfaction with the “erratic strategy” of the Feijóo team, or at least a misunderstanding of what is being done .
The Basque language used by Sémper is the trigger, but not the cause, or at least not the main objective, although some parliamentarians expressed their displeasure or strangeness to Sémper himself.
Faced with the question, yesterday on Onda Cero, of whether he feels comfortable in the PP and whether he considers that “he has enemies”, the popular spokesman assured that he feels comfortable in the Feijóo project and that the PP is his home: “I I gambled my life to be of the PP. They wanted to kill me for being from the PP”, and maybe that’s why the criticism hurts him more.
Many did not criticize that he spoke in Basque, but that he did so after saying the previous day that the PP “would not do the peach” and that Cuca Gamarra asked for the floor at the beginning of the plenary to demand that the regulations in force be complied with, already having made it clear that they would oppose the use of co-official languages.
This is the example given by the sources that La Vanguardia has spoken with to exemplify the “erratic strategy” of the formation. The deputies knew that Sémper would speak in Basque. They found out in the group meeting prior to the plenary session. They were expressly informed that Basque sentences would be interspersed. And it was what he did, defends the leadership of the PP and the popular spokesman himself, although they admit that perhaps not all the relevant explanations were offered.
From Génova it is emphasized that he uttered those sentences and immediately translated them into Spanish, to show that with the current regulations you can speak in any co-official language, if you translate it, and that “to understand each other between Spaniards you don’t need translators” .
The popular leadership defends the way in which the debate took place, because “we could not allow a symbol to be taken away”, that of language, “that the pro-independence parties want us to leave exclusively to them”. It is what Feijóo did in Galicia, they say, and the use of Galician is normalized, without the nationalists being able to appropriate it.
This is not the only decision taken by the party leadership that these sectors do not understand, and they also mention Sunday’s event. In his speech to the national executive board, on Monday, September 11, a board to which deputies and senators belong, Feijóo did not talk about calling an event. The following day, José María Aznar called for a civic and institutional mobilization against the amnesty, and Gamarra hastened to announce a large “open public act” against the measures of grace for the pro-independence parties in the process, which the same leadership of the PP he drove back to leave it at a meeting, to which anyone who wants to go is invited, “as in all meetings”. The critical voices within the party are upset because they consider that it seems that it is Aznar who sets the tone, and when it is not him, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, without Feijóo exercising his leadership and imposing himself. They believe that it is not logical to celebrate this event on the eve of the inauguration of the leader of the PP, because it is to recognize in advance that it will fail and that Pedro Sánchez will be president.
They have the same opinion about the back and forth with the dialogue with Junts – keeping Bildu out of the talks – but backing off when Puigdemont raised his demands, although he already “knew what they were”, and after receiving the harsh criticism from the leader of the PP of Catalonia, Alejandro Fernández, Isabel Díaz Ayuso and Cayetana Álvarez de Toledo.
The popular leadership accepts these complaints and defends itself. “We will not expel anyone because they say what they think”, they say. “This is not a sect”, and they invite the disaffected to raise their ideas to the management in a situation “as demonized” as the current one. They say that many prefer Feijóo to be in opposition mode, but the popular leader continues to believe that his obligation is to present himself at the investiture and assert the 172 seats.
The response of the PP leadership is that governments have been formed in their territories, many with Vox, and Genoa has supported them, even if these agreements have reduced Feijóo’s votes, and despite this the PP “grew through the center” , while others wanted “to be cornered in a corner”. There will be time to oppose, they explain, but it won’t be until after the investiture is celebrated, next week.
