Emiliano García-Page is the only socialist baron who has appealed the amnesty law before the Constitutional Court, joining 14 other appeals from communities in the hands of the PP. But today he wants to distance himself from the presidents of these autonomies.
He argued that although the PP governments seek to “evict” the PSOE from the government or bring that party to power, their approaches “are different”: the call from Castilla-La Mancha is based on “legal relationships” that guarantee that the amnesty represents the “rupture of equality between all Spaniards” that the Constitution includes.
In an interview with the program ‘Espejo Público’, García-Page said that no one from the federal leadership of the PSOE or the government called him to try to prevent the presentation of this appeal: “I think they are losing me”, he maintains.
“I raised the appeal of unconstitutionality because I am convinced that this is the case and I did so after seeking the opinion of the advisory bodies. I like to comply. I said that if this law harms the system of coexistence, I will not stand idly by,” he stressed.
That said, he rejected the attempt to transfer the “common” image of the resources of the autonomies into the hands of the PP with that presented by the Castilian-La Mancha government. “This image does not seem positive to me. All autonomous governments must exercise their role autonomously. If some seek to dislodge the PSOE or bring the PP to power, my approaches are very different.”
“My approach is the same as that of the government before being blackmailed by the Junts”
He stressed that the appeal presented, in the case of Castilla-La Mancha, is based on legal reports that maintain that the amnesty law “breaks the constitutional system and equality.” “It does not only affect a specific competition. Castilla-La Mancha is affected by any alteration of the hierarchy of higher values. In addition, my approach is the same as that of the government before being subjected to the blackmail of Junts,” he added.
Emiliano García-Page also referred to the statements of the PP leader, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, who accused him of “saying a lot and doing little.” He stressed that what he said was “very unfair” and in the same vein, he recalled that he, among other socialists, “got his hair in his mouth” so that Mariano Rajoy would become president of the government. This refers to the schism that existed within the PSOE regarding whether or not to abstain when the latter was sworn in.
“Neither grateful nor paid,” Page said of these events, showing his doubts that “some leaders of the PP, otherwise, would have carried out this exercise of responsibility.”
At this point, he also pointed out that the reason Feijóo is pressuring socialist MPs to vote against possible single funding for Catalonia (as he already did with the amnesty) is mainly because he does not have a majority in Congress.
“Let’s see if I am responsible for the fact that, in the final stretch before the general elections, the PP agreed so frantically with Vox that it could not oust Sánchez. Let’s see if now, what it had to do, which was to get votes, will translate into the dirty work of others,” he said in reference to this pressure on the socialist deputies.
In addition, Page stressed that the congressional deputies come from electoral lists drawn up by Ferraz’s socialist leadership and that “the only thing that would be missing in Spain would be for each regional president to have the possibility of organizing the deputies of his region.” “It would be a lack of control for the country if we all behaved like independentists.”
“Feijoo says he is not president because he does not want to be, well, he would have wanted to be, that way he would save himself from invitations to trafuguismo. I think the PP is wrong in this dynamic and now I have missed hearing many PP leaders who criticized a long time ago the agreements with Jordi Pujol, when the financing was reversed, or the war in Iraq and when it was already “Well, with so many Bárcenas.”
The president of Castilla-La Mancha said that he was not an exception to the PSOE, that there were more politicians with “different opinions”, and that he did not declare himself “sanchista” or “anti-sanchista”, but rather a “moderate” PSOE that fights against any form of fanaticism, even internal.”
He also made extensive reference to the change in the regional financing model, which has been re-debated due to the agreement between the COPS and the CER to provide Catalonia with a single financing. He compared this pact to that of amnesty: “It’s all part of the same chain, of a rather fallacious blackmail on the part of the independentists.”
In this regard, Page said that he was aware of the document on Catalan quotas published by the ERC, and not only is he “constitutionally” concerned, but it does not seem “progressive” to him either. “What was signed seems very bad to me from a constitutional point of view and from the essence of the left,” he said.
The wealth of Girona is as much yours as mine, just as that of Toledo
In his view, this agreement is based on a “huge misconception” that there are 17 “riches” in Spain that each autonomous community owns. On the contrary, he said, “wealth is national, as the Constitution says” and “the wealth of Girona is as much yours as mine, just like that of Toledo.”
“At the moment, no one is clear about the regional funding model, let alone willing to make it known through individual discussions. The only thing that is clear is that there are regions that are underfunded and if anyone can ask the question, it is we who are those regions.”
On this subject, the socialist president stressed that the debt reduction associated with the government’s proposal on regional financing has been proposed with a “great ideological burden” and that part of the debt, for example, of Castilla-La Mancha can be associated with the fact that “we are ten years behind in updating the model.” “I believe that what the government wants is to catch up, and if it approaches in this way, it must be understood.”
On the other hand, he ruled out that at the next PSOE congress, which Pedro Sánchez brought forward to this year, there would be “purges”, although he later said that “every time a melon is opened, we don’t do it”. I don’t know how it’s going to happen. “get out”. “In the majority of communities and municipalities where the PSOE lost, rather than finding culprits, we should see if they were victims of the dominant national policy.”
Finally, he referred to Pedro Sánchez’s mention of Lamborghinis. “There are many more buses and cars than Lamborghinis. Nor am I going to criticize anyone who has the taste and money to buy one. But if you mean that we should use public transport more, I agree with that.”
