The coalition arrives quartered to the motion of censure

The Minister Spokesperson for the Government, Isabel Rodríguez, chatting with journalists after her last appearance in La Moncloa, on Monday.Samuel Sanchez

Vox's motion of no confidence in nowhere, doomed to failure as it only has the support of the extreme right, has become an oxygen canister for the Government and a nuisance for the PP.

La Moncloa, battered in a legislature of the devil with a pandemic and the war in Ukraine, has gotten used to seeing crises as opportunities and counts the hours until the start of the debate while crossing its fingers attentive to the banking whirlwind on both sides of the Atlantic .

But happiness in the first government coalition since the Second Republic is not complete.

The expected closing ranks at the gates of a constitutional instrument such as the motion, so exceptional that it will be the sixth to be held since the end of the dictatorship —and only one was successful, that of Pedro Sánchez against Mariano Rajoy in 2018— , it will not be complete.

The PSOE aspired to a truce with its minority partner, but Ione Belarra, Minister of Social Rights and Secretary General of Podemos, has decided to take advantage of the situation so as not to relax the pressure of recent weeks on the Socialists.

“This week the vote of no confidence in Vox will be held in Congress.

We have the opportunity to demonstrate that this government does not yield to the interests of those who do not present themselves to the elections with facts.

It is urgent to approve the housing law.

It is urgent to correct the course ”, she wrote this Monday on social networks after the Council of Ministers.

"Courage is not exactly what this government has lacked, but quite the opposite," spokesperson for the Executive, Isabel Rodríguez, came forward.

This week the motion of censure of VOX will be held in Congress.

We have the opportunity to demonstrate that this government does not yield to the interests of those who do not present themselves to the elections with facts.

It is urgent to approve the housing law.

It is urgent to correct the course.

— Ione Belarra (@ionebelarra) March 20, 2023

Far from calming the waters with the PSOE, revolts from the discrepancies for the reform of the

replicated in fiascoes such as the failure of the parliamentary modification of the Citizen Security Law or

Podemos has not stopped removing them in recent days as if the week were bland and the motion did not exist.

"For the PSOE, housing is a market good and for us it is an essential right," said Pablo Fernández, spokesman for Podemos, on Sunday.

Already then, Belarra insisted on the idea that the motion "is a good opportunity for the PSOE to look to the left" and demonstrate with the approval of the housing law or by limiting the price of the shopping basket that the Government "does not bow down to the mighty."

Coincidence or not, the day before Sánchez vindicated the Government's policies using the same words as Belarra.

More information

Latest news on Vox's motion of no confidence, live

The government's legislative priority is to approve the housing law before the May elections.

The PSOE has incorporated among its commitments for 28-M "to effectively convert housing into the fifth pillar of the welfare state", developing the norm and extending aid or vouchers to young people for emancipation.

Its impact among the youngest and most precarious electorate could be key, but for the regional and municipal governments there are still two months to go.

The immediate present is dominated by the motion of censure that Ramón Tamames, a former member of the PCE, will defend.

The Government wants to use it, if Podemos allows it, to contrast models and review the response to the covid and inflation due to the war in Ukraine against the cuts and neoliberal recipes of the PP in the Great Recession.

Moncloa refuses to give the slightest clue and clarify what format it will follow during the debate.

The surprise would be that Yolanda Díaz did not intervene in addition to the president.

Different sources take it for granted that this will be the case and recall the precedent of the autumn 2020 motion, in which Pablo Iglesias had his space.

The second vice president confirmed precisely this Monday that on April 2 she will formally announce her candidacy for the general elections, so the motion is a plus to amplify her visibility.

And more in full conflict with Podemos for the role that she would have in Sumar, the political project that Díaz is building.

What La Moncloa does not contemplate is that Belarra and the Minister of Equality, Irene Montero, intervene.

Government sources emphasize that the Executive "takes the motion of no confidence very seriously and with all solemnity", since it was precisely the legal instrument through which Sánchez became president of the Government five years ago.

The strategists who are looking for a response to a "so singular" motion, with a "interposed" candidate, emphasize that Tamames "will receive the corresponding treatment, with absolute respect."

The Government will concentrate the targets on Vox but above all on Alberto Núñez Feijóo.

The leader of the PP will be the great absentee of the motion.

Sánchez will focus on Feijóo's deliberate silence regarding the motion and his contradictory relationship with the extreme right: he appears to mark the distances but, in the absence of knowing if the numbers would give to co-govern, he has not refused to agree with her after 28- M nor in the general elections.

"Feijóo is linking his political future to Vox, which is revealing from someone who said that he is moderate," charged Isabel Rodríguez.

"His first decision [to the head of the PP] was to agree with the extreme right in Castilla y León and now it culminates with this," she emphasized about the announced abstention of the popular.

Feijóo's decision to avoid Congress on the two days of debate and set a parallel agenda reflects the unease in the PP to justify their blank vote in the previous motion of the legislature, with Pablo Casado at the helm, in which they voted against of the motion of Santiago Abascal.

In La Moncloa they trust that the motion will wear Feijóo out and cross their fingers that Podemos and the PSOE take a break.

Even if it's 48 hours.

02:55

Review of the Ramón Tamames newspaper library: from proposing a federal system to the defense of environmentalism

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