The President of the Government, Pedro Sanchezcorrected this Monday before the deputies, senators and European deputies gathered in Congress his phrase of disdain towards the Parliament pronounced ten days ago before the Federal Commission of the PSOE. He then declared that he would continue to govern “with or without the help of the legislative power”.
Yesterday, the socialist leader asked his parliamentarians to dialogue with the rest of the groups, to seek agreements and to present initiatives. He thus went from contempt for Parliament to ensuring that ““The door to Moncloa is open” for any party to make proposals. “You have to give your all in the negotiations,” he said, in what was understood as an attempt to approve the budgets.
The rectification, started a few days ago during his official trip to China, responds to the conviction of the government and Moncloa that This sentence was a mistake.
The socialists explain that on this occasion, Sánchez intended to say that even if the blockade of his inauguration is broken, it is not possible to approve initiatives and budgets are pending due to lack of support, he will continue to govern and make decisions that do not require a vote in Congress.
But the expression remained as a kind of contempt for Parliament, as the government and the party recognized. And even if the text had been prepared in Moncloa, it was not an improvised or failed phrase.
For this reason, this Monday, the President of the Government rectified or changed his mind before his people in Congress, and praised the Parliament and the importance of the agreements reached there.
He even launched a request for support from the PP for two of the key political initiatives that he is promoting these days and which, to a certain extent, must be submitted to the vote soon: the so-called spending ceiling and the regeneration plan.
The spending ceiling is the first step to approve the general state budgets. In July, the plenary of Congress rejected it by the votes of the PP, Vox and Junts the spending ceiling proposed by the government, and now the Council of Ministers has approved it again so that it can be submitted to the Lower House for a vote again.
Junts maintains in principle its rejection and the government hopes that the PP will support it or, at least, that it will support it. Alberto Nuñez Feijoo bear the cost of further rejection.
If this new spending ceiling is not approved, future budgets will have to respect the previous, more restrictive one. According to Sánchez, the autonomous communities and municipalities will then have less money to spend, especially for 5 billion euros.
In this way, the President of the Government comes to the conclusion that if the PP does not support the text of the Executive, it will be responsible for the fact that the administrations do not have these 5 billion euros to serve their citizens. In doing so, he manages to put the regional presidents of the PP in the position of having to blame Feijóo for blocking the option of not being able to use this money.
The PP’s response
PP sources explain that if the government wants to gain support, it must first negotiate and, in any case, if it chooses a bloc to govern, it must continue to count on the parties that compose it, namely Junts, ERC, Bildu and Podemos.
They believe that they should not be Sánchez’s crutch when he lacks support, but They won’t give you oxygen because part of his strategy is to show that he is presiding over a weak government that is losing votes and restricting his parliamentary initiatives.
Yesterday, Sánchez also asked the PP to support the regeneration plan that the government will present today. The argument is that the part referring to the media and the fight against hoaxes is based on a European directive which was approved by the Brussels Parliament in a popular vote, so they should now support his plan.
In this case, the PP also responds that the measures were prepared by the government and that if it wants votes, it must negotiate and choose the majorities that it maintains.
Although the concrete measures are not yet known, the PP has already made it clear that it will not support “any approach of the government based on the control of the media, which would prevent them from publishing topics and questions that disturb President Sánchez.”
“It is striking that Sánchez is promoting his proposal precisely after the firstjudicial investigation against his wifeaccused of corruption and influence peddling, and when the corruption cases directly affect part of his government and his party,” add the popular. In other words, they do not have the possibility of supporting these measures.
The regeneration plan will not include tough measures against the media or the brake on popular action requested by the state attorney general to put an end to popular accusation.
According to government sources, there will be no reference to Justiceas Félix Bolaños transmitted to the groups last July, to the great displeasure of some of them, who wanted measures to put an end to what they call right.
