The amnesty has become the socialist version of “that person you’re talking about” with which Mariano Rajoy avoided those pointed out for corruption in his party. Pedro Sánchez does not mention the word amnesty, nor does Salvador Illa, but both feed their speeches with veiled references and arguments to justify it. It is a message addressed to his people, but also to society that did not end up seeing clearly the criminal reform of sedition and that let them know on 23-J.
At the PSC’s traditional Rose Festival held yesterday in the Pineda de Gavà, the president tiptoed over the amnesty, but justified the previous measures that have made it easier for Catalonia to be “infinitely better” than in 2017. “The what we are doing today is turning a page, betting on harmony and reunion”, he alleged.
Sánchez underpinned the socialist road map in Catalonia by taking for granted not only the failure of Alberto Núñez Feijóo’s investiture, which is being discussed this week, but also the success of his own, yet to be fixed on the calendar. And he did not hesitate to insult the attitude of the PP, which in recent hours has appealed to “the worst of corruptions, transfuguism”, he denounced, so that Feijóo has the option of avoiding failure.
“There are numbers for there to be a progressive government with Yolanda Díaz’s party, which leaves a Feijóo government with Abascal in dry dock”, guaranteed Sánchez. And “when he is sworn in as president”, he predicted, “we will seek the votes to raise the minimum wage, to revalue pensions, scholarships, to promote real equality between men and women”, he promised. In this way, Sánchez sees himself starting a new term as president with the aim of “continuing to advance rights and coexistence”, he said, “with a method, the dialogue with the unions, employers, the territories and the political formations, and with a framework, the Spanish Constitution”, he said.
A Magna Carta that “we comply with every day of the year, from A to Z”, unlike the PP, which “has not complied with it for years” due to its refusal to renew the General Council of the Judiciary, he compared.
At the same time that 15,000 socialist affiliates and sympathizers received Sánchez with acclamations on the outskirts of Barcelona, ??the PP gathered 40,000 in its political event in Madrid against the possible amnesty, hence the references to this protest by Sánchez and Illa they were forceful.
Faced with the catastrophic omens that Sánchez sees on the right when he warns, as he said, that “Spain is breaking up”, the PSOE leader recalled that “when Spain came closest to breaking up, it was with President Rajoy and the unilateral declaration of independence”. But the PP protest deserved a specific reference.
“They demonstrate against the investiture of a socialist president”, he criticized, instead of seeking the votes for Feijóo to achieve his goal. “They are boycotting themselves”, he pointed out. But the most worrying thing for Sánchez is that “coming from where we come from, from 2018, with a sentence against the most important corruption in the history of our democracy, the Gürtel, or with the so-called patriotic police to persecute adversaries or obstructing the work of justice, they are now calling for the worst form of corruption, transfuguism”, he reprimanded.
In this sense, Sánchez recalled that the PP “kicked out” Pablo Casado for having denounced a case of corruption that affected the president (Isabel Díaz) Ayuso, “still not clarified”, he pointed out, “and now they are resorting to the worst of corruptions. I’m sorry, but there will be a socialist government”, he guaranteed.
Illa added to Sánchez’s criticism of the PP and asked the people to “respect” the results of the 23-J elections; “to the liturgy of democracy” and to deputies and laws. In this case, because of the “unacceptable” eagerness of the Feijóo people to “buy wills” and “talk about tamayazos”. For Illa, this strategy is a “real insult” and a “manifestation of ignorance” because “they don’t know who they are dealing with; we socialists get dressed by the feet”, he warned.
