One after the other, up to ten, the Congress rejected this Tuesday all the demands of the PP concerning the members of the Government, including the president. Pedro Sanchezprovide explanations on current events, from the Catalan concert to immigration policy. None of them have come to fruition despite the favorable vote of the Junts, which has continued to strain relations with the Executive since the investiture of Salvador Illa in Catalonia.
In a normal situation, the seven deputies of Carles Puigdemont They would have been enough to tip the scales in favour of the opposition, but not this time. As happens in the Permanent Deputation, the arithmetic is not typical of the Plenary, but only votes are taken 69 representatives parliamentarians. With the exception of Junts and Podemos – who abstained on two points – the investiture bloc closed ranks around the “no” vote.
“All summer the PP has been talking about problems again and again, asking for appearances and claiming that it would win them because of parliamentary weakness… and today, out of ten votes, they lost ten“, summarizes a source from Moncloa. As a reminder, there were actually eight votes, not ten, given that some requests were grouped together and voted on at the same time.
The result was as follows: in six votes, 35 it is not against 33 if it is; and in two others, a tie at 34 votes with one abstention.
This last vote, that of Podemos, was the one that tipped the balance in favor of the government. Faced with a tie at 34, as happened in the vote on the appearance of Sánchez, the abstention of the deputy Ione Belarra has become crucial. In this case, the vote must be repeated up to three times and, if the tie persists, it will be considered lost.
“The PP has asked for a circus, to create disorder after the summer and even to call the scorer to appear,” say party sources who, however, highlight the “symbolic” fact of the abstention in two votes – those relating to Sánchez and the Minister of Transport, Óscar Puente, to “scare” the government.
In the case of Junts, on the other hand, the break with the investiture bloc was more than symbolic and voted in favor of three appearances: that of Sánchez, to explain the problem of immigration that is devastating the Canary Islands and Ceuta; that of the vice-president Maria Jesus Monteroon the “single financing” of Catalonia; and that of Puente, to face the “railway chaos” of August.
weak majority
The close votes of the Standing Deputation make visible the complicated impasse of the Government, which begins the journey with victories that would not have been obtained if they had occurred in a conventional plenary session, with all the deputies present. “It’s the magic of the holiday period”“, jokes a member of the Executive about the specific majority on Tuesday.
The plenary session of the Congress will not be scheduled, in principle, until the second week of September, when the next period of sessions will begin. If the majorities had been reproduced in the Chamber, the opposition – with the support of Junts – would have obtained the absolute majority.
The PSOE, Sumar, ERC, EH Bildu and PNV positioned themselves against all the PP’s demands and, whatever the variable, the Popular Party would have obtained the necessary support to overcome most of them. Yes, they would have done so in the three in which Junts stood out, even if they had not had the Yeah from Podemos.
