On the attack After long months on the defensive, always under fire from the right for the negotiations with Junts to approve an amnesty that allowed the investiture of Pedro Sánchez and on which the course of the legislature depends, the Government and the PSOE they see that the time has come to change the shifts, take revenge and go on the offensive.
All thanks to Alberto Núñez Feijóo’s “confessions” in which the leader of the PP, as part of a “reconciliation plan” with Catalonia, opened the door to pardoning Carles Puigdemont, weighed the amnesty for 24 hours and to question whether any crime of terrorism can be attributed to the former president of the Generalitat.
In this strategy to exploit Feijóo’s turn of script against Puigdemont, which coincides with the final stretch of the Galician electoral campaign, yesterday, for the second day, ministers and leaders of the PSOE engaged in it. From María Jesús Montero, Félix Bolaños or Pilar Alegría, to other ministers usually far removed from the daily political struggle, such as Luis Planas or Carlos Cuerpo.
The government deployment of the day was crowned by the Minister of the Presidency and Justice, Félix Bolaños, who warned that the “great imposture” of Feijóo, after it was revealed “what he really thinks” about pardons, amnesty or terrorism in the process, will condition the legislature: “Feijóo’s credibility is undermined by a big lie”.
A la Moncloa and Ferraz consider that these “confessions” of Feijóo, away from the spotlight and microphones, will have a great impact and a long journey, since they dynamitate their entire strategy of ferocious opposition against pardons and amnesty, in which he also linked Catalan independence with terrorism. At the same time, they say that they are right about their reunion agenda to defuse the political conflict in Catalonia.
“Now we know that Feijóo thinks that the path of pardons and amnesty is the right one, and that there was no terrorism in the pro-independence process, as the vast majority of society also believes”, emphasized Bolaños.
Previously, the first vice president of the Spanish Government and vice secretary general of the PSOE, María Jesús Montero, urged from Ferraz that Feijóo explain the meetings and negotiations that the PP held in the summer with Junts, even if he had contact direct with Puigdemont. And that he “begs for forgiveness for lying to the Spanish, for fomenting tension with the sole aim of destabilizing the Executive and making noise, noise and noise from the lie”. “Explanations are urgent”, said Montero. And he made it clear that this offensive will not be the flower of a day nor will they allow the PP to dilute the controversy: “The PSOE will not stop demanding them”.
Montero pointed out that Feijóo’s registration change is due to a “panic reaction” to Puigdemont’s warning that “everything will be known” about his contacts with the PP. “It seems that they are afraid, and a lot”, said the vice-president. “What else is the PP hiding from us, what else is it hiding from us?”, demanded the spokesperson of the Executive, Pilar Alegría. “We demand clarification”.
In the same vein, Montero emphasized that “the lies and hypocrisy of the PP in relation to Catalonia” have been exposed, after the months that the socialists have endured “insults, harassment of our headquarters and even attacks on some militants” while Feijóo kept “a complicit silence” to try to destabilize the central government.
“The opposition of the PP has been so serious, that being in fundamental agreement with our policy, they have opted for an irresponsible strategy of tension”, denounced the vice-president. “Everything, for a partisan interest”, he lamented.
In the PP, insisted the Minister of Agriculture, Luis Planas, “amnesty has been on the table as the main course”. And he criticized that they have encouraged “a debate that confuses citizens”. Even the Minister of Economy, Carlos Cuerpo, warned that “it is very difficult to understand” the popular opposition strategy.
“These months we have heard everything, that we were breaking Spain, betraying the Constitution, attacking the equality of the Spanish, opening a process of impeachment or turning the Courts into a forum for blackmail”, recalled Montero. “And now we discover that Feijóo blatantly lied to all Spaniards, with cynicism and hypocrisy. Now we discover that when the spotlights are turned off, the PP recognizes that our policy of reunion and overcoming the drama they caused in 2017 is correct”, he stressed.
The Executive and the PSOE assure that if Feijóo finally did not accept a pact with Junts for the investiture, it was because Vox would never allow it. And after this turn, they once again see their leadership in the PP on a tightrope. “Feijóo is nervous, and glaring at those who pushed him”, indicated Montero, in veiled allusion to Isabel Díaz Ayuso.
