The Popular Party is pulling all possible resources in Europe to charge against the Government of Pedro Sánchez.
And that includes the intention to drag his European family, the EPP, the majority in the EU institutions, into his all-out war against Sánchez.
Although at the moment they are not achieving it.
The most recent ammunition is the amnesty law for those accused in the
process
, agreed with ERC and Junts as part of the agreements to govern after the July elections and which is voted on in the plenary session of Congress this Thursday.
But also, the renewal of the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ), which the PP has blocked for five years and which is now trying to unblock with the mediation of the European Commission and which it insists on associating with the amnesty.
Or the
Koldo case,
in which the National Court is investigating the alleged collection of illegal commissions in the purchase of masks in the worst of the pandemic, which the European Prosecutor's Office is also going to investigate and which will be debated, at the initiative of the PP, in the European Parliament this Wednesday.
The PP has already threatened to blow up the negotiation to unblock the renewal of the CGPJ, to which it involved the European Commissioner for Justice, Didier Reynders.
The popular leader Esteban González Pons, the Minister of Justice, Félix Bolaños, and Reynders plan to meet this Wednesday, but the negotiation is complicated because the popular ones have no intention of agreeing to the renewal of the body of judges - the PP, in another five Sometimes, before mediation, they have already broken off the negotiation—and they insist on mixing that debate with the issue of amnesty.
Reynders, furthermore, has limited time for this negotiation because he leaves his position at the end of the month, but the popular ones are in no hurry and do not mind if another
referee
takes the baton .
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In fact, González Pons warned a few days ago that Sánchez's "transfers" to Junts make this dialogue difficult.
But the obstacles in the wheels of these conversations with the Commission, which were an initiative of the PP, could cause serious damage to the prestige of Spanish democracy, which has had to look for an arbitrator in what it perceives as all-powerful Brussels.
Meanwhile, the popular blockade of the CGPJ is causing a significant impact on the functioning of the Spanish justice system.
The conservative party also wants to involve Reynders (a liberal, who is perceived as close to the PP) in another collateral debate.
At the request of its parliamentary delegation in the European Parliament, the European Parliament has requested the appearance of the European commissioner before the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs to debate the case opened for terrorism in the Supreme Court against the
former president
of the Generalitat Carles Puigdemont , today an MEP and one of the potential beneficiaries of the amnesty law.
Europeanizing national debates
The popular ones, who continue to touch the resources they have left at home, thus intensify their hardest line to Europeanize national debates.
And, along the way, delegitimize the Spanish Executive.
Above all, on account of the amnesty law and its foreseeable European journey.
The European Commission, which received a flood of petitions and complaints as a result of an organized campaign, will analyze, when it is complete, whether the amnesty law is in accordance with community treaties.
And the PP believes that a possible judicial appeal can open the way for the European courts to rule.
“In few Member States does the European perspective have as much weight as in Spain and so much national policy is made in Brussels,” says a senior community source, who recognizes that this makes the EU institutions move in delicate balances so as not to touch those springs.
This policy of moving the Spanish debates, with an extremely harsh tone, also makes some delegations uncomfortable.
And even more so in the current geopolitical context, where the focus of attention is on Israel's war in Gaza, Russia's war against Ukraine, threats from the Kremlin and while concern increases in the EU about being left without the US security umbrella. USA if Republican Donald Trump returns to the White House and the enormous uncertainty regarding the US elections.
“It is a particular situation that generates noise,” says a popular MEP from an eastern country.
A few days ago, the leader of the Popular Party, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, asked the European institutions – thus, in the abstract – to stop the “nonsense” of the Government and accused the president of “leaving very serious crimes against the heart of the EU unpunished.” .
Meanwhile, the president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, demanded that her European family not have “friendship” with Sánchez.
She said it at the European People's Congress in Bucharest, before hundreds of delegates from across the Union.
Among them, the head of the community Executive, Ursula von der Leyen, who has great harmony with Sánchez.
However, although there are currently no open voices within his political family that criticize Feijóo's maneuvers to Europeanize the debate - and even less so in a party that follows the line given by the party and on an issue with many edges - few picked up on with enthusiasm that gauntlet that the popular Spanish leader threw.
Yes, the president of the PPE, Manfred Weber, did so. He immersed himself in Spanish politics a long time ago and is very loyal to his regional leaders.
“Sánchez is becoming a puppet of Carles Puigdemont,” cried the Bavarian leader.
Also some others, such as the Portuguese Paulo Rangel, who participated last year in the demonstration against the amnesty, or the Romanian Siegfried Muresan, who is one of the vice presidents of the European formation.
“Everyone in the EPP is worried about what is happening in Spain,” says Muresan during a meeting with EL PAÍS at the European Parliament in Strasbourg.
The Romanian MEP, one of the most powerful voices in his political family, believes that the amnesty law is an attack against the rule of law and supports the Europeanization of the debate promoted by the PP.
“Whenever a politician attacks the rule of law and European values, they ask us all to remain silent and present it as an internal debate.
But in an EU with free movement, a single market, all citizens have the right to know that the rule of law is respected,” he points out.
He trusts, like Feijóo, that the European Commission will rule harshly on the grace measure.
“Reactions can only occur if a law is passed, so they will not come immediately, but they will come after the legislation is adopted.
And they will be negative,” he considers.
“And we must bear in mind that in Europe, if losing trust is easy, recovering it is difficult,” adds the MEP, who goes so far as to insinuate that Spain's European funds may be at risk.
However, the provisional opinion of the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe, another institution that is not part of the EU, but whose opinions Brussels takes as a reference on many occasions - such as in the renewal of the CGPJ - supports the arguments of the amnesty law.
However, the advisory body puts some buts to the rule regarding how its processing has been designed.
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