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The two cards that led to Feijóo's first no

2022-05-01T21:12:34.287Z


The PP maintains that the negotiation of the anti-crisis decree failed because it failed to get the Government to grant it any compensation, but that the Judiciary will agree with the PSOE


The president of the Xunta de Galicia, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, this Friday after presenting his resignation letter in Santiago. Álvaro Ballesteros (Europa Press)

On Tuesday afternoon, when there were 48 hours to go before the vote on the anti-crisis decree and everything was up in the air, the Minister of Finance, María Jesús Montero, telephoned the PP's new Deputy Secretary of Economy, Juan Bravo, to negotiate his possible support for the aid package.

“Juan, are you serious about this?” she asked him.

"Of course.

And you?".

Montero and Bravo knew each other because of the Government's relationship with the autonomous communities, because he is a Minister of the Treasury in Andalusia.

The conversation between the two ran in a good tone, for a little over half an hour, despite their discrepancies, especially on fiscal policy.

Bravo tried to convince Montero of the tax cut proposed by the PP, which would deduct up to 10,000 million euros from the public coffers, using the "surplus" in the collection that causes inflation, and that the conservatives estimate at 7,500 million only in the first two months of the year.

"That figure cannot be known!" Montero argued.

The finance minister replied to the PP leader that she did not have time to study the economic and budgetary impact of such a far-reaching measure before the vote on the decree on Thursday.

He asked them to abstain with the commitment to process the decree as a bill.

Bravo did not know at that time what his party would vote for if he did not get the tax cut.

Feijóo, who guards his decisions with scrupulous zeal even for his own, only entrusted him to negotiate.

crossing of missives

The next movement of the PP consisted of sending a letter to the Minister of Finance signed by Bravo that was published almost at the same time to the press, in which the popular insisted on demanding the "update of the personal income tax rate for families with medium and low incomes” and the reduction of VAT on gas and electricity to 5%.

It was Wednesday afternoon, and Montero, very annoyed that the PP had released a theoretically discreet letter to negotiate, responded with another public letter in which he replied that the popular proposals required "deep analysis."

The negotiation went into a tailspin, and the war of the story opened up.

The last call took place on Wednesday at the end of the afternoon, less than 12 hours before the vote on the decree.

The Minister of the Presidency, Félix Bolaños, telephoned the Secretary General of the PP, Cuca Gamarra, and asked her what the meaning of her vote would be.

She already knew then that the Government had prioritized other groups to carry it forward, because other spokespersons had told her that they were negotiating, while with the PP the talks were stalled.

According to government sources, Gamarra told Bolaños that they would go to no.

According to the PP,

number two

of the popular told him that there was still time if they agreed to any of his requests.

The Government moved that night

in extremis

accepting one of the demands of the PP, to process the decree as a bill, which the popular had requested in the discreet contacts of those days.

But for the PP it was insufficient, and Feijóo decided to vote no, just as Pablo Casado would surely have done, and just as Vox (and ERC) did.

"We could only go to the no the same day that the Government takes out the decree with Bildu and puts them in the secrets commission," they argue in the PP leadership.

A posteriori

, given that the

Abertzale party

saved the vote ―something that was not known until the same morning of the vote, on Thursday―, the PP is justified in that Bildu's support was incompatible with his.

In the hard core of Feijóo they reject that the lost opportunity to distance themselves from the no to everything could take its toll on them, and they complain that the Government did not want to agree with the PP either.

“We don't need to distance ourselves from anyone, but a change in the government's attitude towards us would have been enough for us to have reached an agreement.

They continue to behave as if we were Pablo Casado and Teodoro García Egea”, points out a popular leader involved in the talks with the Executive.

Feijóo ordered to oppose a decree with 6,000 million euros in aid, which if it had declined would have caused gasoline to automatically cost 20 cents more.

The PP leader withstood the pressure and maintained his refusal, despite the fact that many of his supporters expected an abstention.

The result of the first attempt at negotiation with the government of the new PP is the same failure as with the old PP.

Despite the failed agreement, in the hard core of Feijóo they maintain that there are wickers for future agreements.

"Here we have witnessed a trial and error that has gone wrong, but it has begun to come out," argue sources close to the popular leader.

The dialogue remains open and the first contacts have already been made for the renewal of the General Council of the Judiciary, which Casado did not want to unblock after more than three and a half years of expired mandate.

In the PP of Feijóo they assure that this time it will be different.

"We're going to do it right," they insist.

The popular interlocutor, Esteban González Pons, trusts Félix Bolaños, with whom he has already begun to talk about the council.

The Government wants to continue talking with the PP about the economy, because new decrees will come.

At the moment, pending the new talks, the only thing that has changed is a certain decibel reduction.

After their failed negotiation, the Minister of Finance and the Deputy Secretary of Economy of the PP met on Thursday in the corridors of Congress and, before a small group of journalists, they joked about their good weather.

"I always say that when I return to my post as Treasury inspector you are going to send me to Chafarinas," Bravo told him, "why not?"

Montero smiled: “But I did get along with Cristóbal Montoro!

Politeness, does not remove the brave".

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Source: elparis

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