The spokesperson for the PP, Miguel Telladoasked to suspend all parliamentary activity this Wednesday out of “respect” for the victims of DANA. He did this already at the start of the session, after the third question to the Government, after about 20 minutes of the session. His socialist counterpart, Patxi Lopezexpressed its agreement and the Board of Directors as well as the Council of Spokespersons were convened for this purpose.
But during these meetings, The Government has imposed its criteria, thanks to Francine Armengol: Only the control session was canceled and everything else… except the extraordinary plenary session to validate the RTVE reform decree would continue.
“One thing is control and another is legislation”justified a socialist member of the Council, according to sources present at the meeting. “But today is a day of consensus,” Tellado insisted, “We give you all the facilities, we convene an extraordinary plenary session another daywhatever it is, you will still issue the decree, but let’s be consistent.”
Tellado requests the suspension of the plenary session by DANA.
That’s when Tellado remembered the whole scene. He had requested the suspension of the entire plenary session “so that the Government can work with the rest of the administrations” in tragedy. And when Patxi López said she “agreed”, it wasn’t with that, but with “suspend full control”. In addition, Armengol gave the floor to Sumar’s deputy spokesperson, the Valencian Àgeda Micó, who expressed his support “for the proposal of the socialist spokesperson”.
Board of Directors and Spokesperson
The debate was heated, among other things because they were already late for the Board of Directors meeting. Alfonso Rodriguez Gomez de Celis (PSOE) and Gerard Pisarello (Add). “Late but together,” notes a PP source present. “As if they had just discussed something between themselves” which sealed what could already be suspected after the previous scene in the room.
Already at the Council of Spokespersons, Armengol proposed three options to those gathered: suspend everything, cancel the control session but continue to vote for the decree, or even maintain everything. The decision had to be taken unanimously. But Neither the PSOE retracted, nor the PP was going to accept “moral turpitude of this caliber.”
One of the government’s partners – with a quota of seats on the Public Radio and Television Council, which will be known shortly afterwards – criticized Tellado for leading “a maneuver to delay the approval of the decree”. And the popular spokesperson was surprised, according to the sources present.
Tellado, who smelled the maneuver, insisted on offering his support for holding the plenary session any day other than this Wednesday, as proposed by the PSOE and its partners. López alleged that “if workers continue to workus too.” And Aïna Vidal (Sumar) replied that “MPs were not going to participate in rescue efforts“So they had to move on.
Suspicions were therefore confirmed, unanimity proved impossible, and President Armengol decided.
Article 54 of the Congress report is exhaustive: the convening of a plenary session is power of the presidency. And articles 67 and 68 explain how the agenda is set or modified: this also depends on the presidency. “in agreement with the College of Spokespersons”, which must decide unanimously.
“The clumsiness of the PSOE”
“A dialectical confrontation on a day like today, it didn’t make sense“, noted shortly after a left-wing spokesperson in the courtyard of Congress. She said that, yes, while I was waiting to vote in favor of the decree reform of the RTVE board of directors.
“So why are you continuing this extraordinary plenary session to take RTVE by storm?” asked the journalist. “The PSOE imposed it, at the request of Moncloa. Although he is hiding behind us, he is Armengol“, he explained.
“It’s clumsy, the PSOE is disconnected from reality, it had three weeks left to validate this decree, and Today was a day to understand that the PP had beaten you, but that you had lost nothing in this defeat. »
The previous
So, what had the PP gained? Nothing more than the honor of having been the one who proposed, first, the minute of silence and, then, the suspension. Around, PSOE deputies created groups with the press to try to place this “The inconsistency” of the time was not his, but that of the PP, which “should not have even started to take full control”.
An authoritative popular source explains the sequence of events:
There were still three quarters before the start of the control session in Congress when Miguel Tellado sent a message on the phone to Francina Armengol. The parliamentary spokesperson of the PP asked the socialist president of the Congress to “keep a minute of silence before the start of the plenary session in memory of those who died due to the effects of DANA in our country.”
This is why a monitoring session began which, given the scale of the human and material tragedy in the Valencian Community, Castile-La Mancha and Andalusia, now seems totally out of place.
Tellado, shortly before the start of the session, had sent a message to the entire Popular Group asking for “restraint in the struggle”.
He did it, according to his entourage, so that those responsible for the issues respected the instructions and so that the rest of the deputies understood why this Wednesday the PP would not viciously attack the Government. “Today is not a day of fighting, so we ask questions and we oppose, but in a measured tone,” explains one of the recipients of the prize. What’s new.
At that time there was no official death toll, only the Civil Guard ventured to report that “at least” there had been 13 deaths in the Valencian Community. But the regional president, the popular Carlos Mazonurged “caution” and insisted there was no “official confirmation possible”, given emergency teams had not even been able to reach many affected areas.
They intervened Cuca Gamarraasking Maria Jesus Montero explain “which institution will be next to be attacked” by the government; Jaime de Olanoquestioning Yolanda Díaz for her “social monologue” aimed at imposing a reduction in working hours; and finally, Ester Munozwho already started his speech by warning that it was “the only day” when he didn’t want to ask…
“But we saw that Díaz was there for the fight“, by viciously attacking, by opposing the opposition,” explains a spokesperson for the Popular Party, “at a time when we knew that we could already speak of more than 50 deaths. Tellado therefore asked to speak for demand the suspension. Then everything else happened.”
The why
What is curious is that, of all this, the only one paying the price for imposing the rush to “assault” on RTVE is the PSOE. Curiously, some of Sánchez’s partners They agreed with Alberto Núñez Feijóo that “any political question could wait”. The PP continues to wonder what is the reason for the emergency that led Pedro Sánchez to show “so little sensitivity towards the victims”.
But they cite two facts to prove that it was worth it for the PSOE and Moncloa.
The first, that Armengol maintained the plenary session of the RTVE decree despite the fact that it suspended all activity of the Congress, including institutional activity; not only the control session, but even canceled acts of homage to those who died during the dictatorship which were to take place in the afternoon.
And the second, that less than an hour had passed when the PSOE, Sumar, Junts, ERC, PNV and Podemos registered in the Lower House a joint list with 11 names agreed between them for the RTVE council. Each, with its share of distribution, will come out with an absolute majority during the second vote, as provided for in the decree.
