The PP will try to obstruct a majority of the PSOE and its possible allies in next Thursday’s votes to elect the presidency and the Bureau of the Congress and, then, raise the “availability” of Alberto Núñez Feijóo to King Felipe VI to be a candidate for a possible investiture. Génova outlined yesterday the roadmap to follow in the coming days in an extraordinary meeting of its management committee called following the movements on the political board initiated by Vox on Sunday, offering its 33 deputies to Feijóo without asking for anything in return; of the UPN, showing its willingness to support the popular candidate, and of the Canarian Coalition, opening itself to agree with its partners in the island government if Vox is not part of a hypothetical executive.
With these “important advances”, the PP announced that in the coming days it will try to negotiate with Coalició Canària for the support of its only deputy in Congress, Cristina Valido. The General Secretary of the People’s Party, Cuca Gamarra, announced that in the coming days “meetings and meetings” will be held with training to “advance the Canary Islands agenda”. The party led by Fernando Clavijo has demanded that the parties that want to seek their support address the island claims as an indispensable condition for sitting down to negotiate.
Génova yesterday positively assessed the position adopted by the Canarian formation of opening up, at least, to exploring an agreement with the popular without Vox. “That CC has advanced its willingness to support an investiture” of Feijóo is a novelty that the PP wanted to emphasize. At the investiture of Pedro Sánchez in 2020, the CC political council unanimously decided to abstain. However, his then deputy in Madrid, Ana Oramas, broke the voting discipline and took a position against it.
At this moment, the PP has more confirmed numbers to face a possible investiture, to which Feijóo offers himself as a candidate “if the head of state entrusts him”, added Gamarra. The PP has 171 explicit supports for a hypothetical assignment from the Monarch and launched yesterday in search of the coveted seat 172. Sánchez would count, for his part, with 170, lacking Junts (7 deputies) and the BNG ( 1) clarify your position. The also spokeswoman for the popular parliamentary group in the Lower House during the last legislature wanted to emphasize that to achieve an investiture in the second round it would not be necessary to have an absolute majority but a simple one, more votes in favor than against.
After the constitution of the General Courts, Felipe VI is scheduled to start the traditional round of consultations with political leaders (Zarzuela has not yet specified the dates). Looking at that moment, the PP reiterated again that it assumes the “responsibility” that “corresponds” to it to “go ahead with an investiture”. Gamarra also recalled that in Spain “the candidate of the party that won the elections has always governed” and that the PP currently has 50 more supporters than Sánchez alone. “Feijóo will seek a broad and constitutional agreement”, remarked the number two of Génova.
Before the round of consultations with the King there is a date marked in red on the political calendar: August 17. On that day, the presidency and the Bureau of Congress are elected, and with a week left for the votes, the options are open. The PSOE has intensified talks with its partners in the face of an election that they expect to be tight. The Acting Minister of the Presidency and negotiator, Félix Bolaños, plans to reappear today in the Lower House to collect his report and try on the ground some supports that Pedro Sánchez does not have moored for now.
The PP aspires not to make it easy for the PSOE in 17-A. Although they are aware of the difficulty of forming an alternative majority, the popular will try to obstruct the election of the third authority of the State, as well as the vice-presidents and secretaries of the Congress Bureau. Gamarra confirmed yesterday that his party will establish contacts with other formations, including Vox, which has already advanced that the offer for a possible investiture cannot be extended to the 17th and that it will require the PP to be part of the Bureau. The general secretary stated that there is still a week left to address these talks and that this period in politics is very broad. Génova specified that contacts will be in the parliamentary sphere (and not between parties). In this sense, the popular people do not rule out, despite the double no of their executive, polling the PNB, whose position is decisive in next Thursday’s session to decide whether the Bureau remains in the hands of the left or the right Gamarra did not want to reveal who will be the candidate of the main group of the chamber to preside over the Lower House.
