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A motion of no confidence that divides the right and unites the Government

2020-10-21T02:16:02.596Z


With the political tension at its peak, Congress debates the Vox initiative. The PP hides its vote and Cs warns that the Executive "will come out stronger"


The spokesperson for Vox in the Congress of Deputies, Iván Espinosa de los Monteros. Fernando Alvarado / EFE

No one knows how far the pandemic can go and no one is able to guess to what heights the political festering in Spain is still capable of escalating.

With the country talking about a possible curfew, the Congress of Deputies returns this Wednesday to the daily battle, this time covered with all the solemnity of an extraordinary debate: a motion of censure, the fifth of democracy.

The extreme right, after months of warming up on the street, rises to the parliamentary rostrum to proclaim that it is now a government alternative.

Vox and its leader, Santiago Abascal, await the appointment as their great springboard, although the effects may be contradictory: dividing the opposition and making it easier for government partners to corner their differences.

This Tuesday in Congress was not an easy morning for Cuca Gamarra.

The PP spokesperson only wanted to talk about what “the Spanish are interested in”: new laws to face the pandemic, the reform of the Judicial Power, the refusal of the Podemos leader Alberto Rodríguez to testify as a defendant in the Supreme Court ... Gamarra insisted on these questions and the journalists only asked him what his party will do when the Vox motion is voted and, with it, Abascal's candidacy for La Moncloa.

The representative of the PP could not even specify whether the parliamentary group was going to meet to reach an agreement.

Early in the morning, everyone had understood Gamarra on TVE that what was decided was that the popular leader, Pablo Casado, would be the spokesperson in the debate.

By noon, that wasn't clear either.

"In politics, nothing is final," he declared.

And, in case it was not clear, he signed: "What is going to happen in the next few hours will be marked in the next few hours."

The contemplative party

The discomfort of the PP in the face of Vox's ordeal is patent.

Abascal has devoured a good part of his electorate in two years and among the popular ones there is no unanimity on the recipe to fight it: either to differentiate themselves very clearly or to wink at him to see if the prodigal voters return home.

Stuck in these troubles, the popular have chosen these days not to talk about the matter, to proclaim, like Married on Monday, that the motion you are talking about "we don't care about anything." The only thing they achieved was that hermeticism or the indecision of the PP became the big issue on the eve of a motion of censure that, moreover, has already sung its outcome: Vox will foreseeably not get any support outside of its 52 deputies.

So, while the PP tried to focus on "what interests the Spaniards", in the gatherings they did not talk about anything other than the motion.

And the Vox spokesman, Iván Espinosa de los Monteros, commented, with a gesture between complacent and regretful: “The PP formerly led the opposition.

Now it is a contemplative game, it reminds me of the cows that moo looking at the Cantabrian Sea ”.

As the duel is presented, it seems very difficult for the right not to come out of the trance more divided, far from the photo of Colón.

The third protagonist of that image, Ciudadanos, has long since taken down and in his case there is no doubt that he will vote with a resounding no to Abascal.

"The only thing they are going to achieve is to foster more tension and for the government to come out stronger and more united," accused party spokesman Edmundo Bal.

The Executive will strive to consolidate that feeling.

Faced with an Abascal who will cry out against the "socialcommunists" —the expression appears 23 times in the 28 pages of the text of his motion—, the Government has decided not only not to hide but to show off its coalition character.

The Executive has the power to intervene in the debate at any time and it has already been decided that, in addition to Pedro Sánchez, Pablo Iglesias will also make use of it.

The time is approaching to present the Budgets, whose negotiation has caused tensions in the Cabinet and which still does not have guaranteed support in the Chamber.

The unit against Vox, also with the external partners of the investiture on its side, will be an asset for the Executive to create a favorable climate.

A program for Abascal

Groups further to the left tried to hone their verbal wit to poke fun at Vox.

"This is a fantasy," proclaimed Íñigo Errejón, from Más País.

“A pitched battle in the Plaza de Colón”, followed by Pablo Echenique, from Unidas Podemos;

although both are far from the familiar sharpness of Gabriel Rufián, from ERC: "It's the premiere of Torrente VI."

Esquerra and EH Bildu tried to promote a plan: to renounce their interventions and leave Abascal alone.

The Government did not support them.

"It is necessary to face the enormously dangerous speech of the extreme right", justified Echenique.

The promoters of the motion do not do much to disguise its fundamentally propaganda character.

Intervene without a time limit with all the media focuses on them is a unique opportunity, they repeat.

They will even take advantage of it to launch their candidate for the Generalitat and current deputy for Barcelona, ​​Ignacio Garriga, who will intervene on behalf of the 52 signatories of the initiative.

The intention is not very different from the one that moved Iglesias to present a motion of censure against Rajoy in 2017: to present himself as the true opposition at the expense of his closest competitor, the PSOE for Podemos, the PP for Vox.

Abascal, in any case, will have to pass the test of exposing a government program, blurred until now.

The leader of Vox is not known precisely for his purposeful vocation, logical in someone who until last year admitted that he was not interested in "the urban plan or school hours" but "honor, patriotism and things like that" .

But this time "he will talk about different things", promised Espinosa de los Monteros.

"It will be novel and surprising."

What will hardly be new or surprising is the tense atmosphere expected in Congress.

The spokesmen have resigned themselves to the fact that the fight becomes inevitable.

"We will see things never seen in the Spanish parliamentarianism ... Which is saying".

The augury was launched by Rufián, the deputy who one day raised a printer from his seat.



Source: elparis

All news articles on 2020-10-21

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