The Government maintains its strategy of not entering into public conflict with the PP over the management of DANA, but believes that Feijóo’s party has crossed all red lines with the attempt to boycott Teresa Ribera in Brussels. This Wednesday, the reproaches of the opposition against the executive of Pedro Sánchez were incessant during the appearance in Congress of the Minister of Territorial Policy and during the control session which followed. A criticism that was avoided by the blue bench until the leader of the opposition appeared to publicly demand that the vice-president not be a candidate for the Commission.
“Brussels has no right to act at the expense of Mr. Feijóo’s anger. He is trying to give instability to the European government. And he has no right to try to contaminate European institutions with the policy of lies and hoaxes that he practices here,” attacked María Jesús Montero to the president of the Popular Party in the halls of Congress.
A few minutes before, and after not appearing all morning in plenary session during the appearance of the Minister of Territorial Policy which the President of the Government did not attend either, Feijóo summoned the Congress press to support Carlos Mazón cornered, to hold Teresa Ribera responsible for the mismanagement of DANA and to solemnly demand her withdrawal from her candidacy for the Commission.
“All ministries have failed,” he declared before focusing all his attacks on Ribera, who is about to be elected vice-president of competition of the European Commission. Feijóo demanded that the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, choose another person from his cabinet for this position: “Spain does not deserve this commissioner.” Today, the candidate for Commission president, European People’s Party member Ursula von der Leyen, ratified her support for Ribera.
“Yesterday, the Spanish candidate did not pass the first exam. “This is an unusual and worrying situation for Europe and our country,” said Feijóo, who ignored the fact that on Tuesday none of the six candidates for Commission vice-president were elected. The PP leader described as “blackmail” the fact that the government maintains its commitment to Ribera and assured that “she is not the one that Spain needs as a candidate nor the one that the Commission needs as vice-president. president.”
“She should not be given an important position in the EU on behalf of Spain,” he added. “I ask the government to withdraw the candidacy of Teresa Ribera and propose another person who obtains the support of society,” he said. Feijóo once again raised the possibility of Ribera having legal problems because of his role in the Valencia tragedy and asked for someone “free of suspicion”.
This offensive by the Popular Party against the vice-president as a strategy to mask the political scandal that has already become the management of Carlos Mazón at the head of the Generalitat on October 29 is considered in Moncloa as a declaration of hostilities. And that is why María Jesús Montero entered the fray on this occasion.
“Feijoo is lying. He lies when he says Ribera failed the exam. The six executive vice presidents who were going to vote have been postponed to vote in the coming days. It is a lie to say that Ribera failed any type of test,” said Montero, who disfigured the PP attack for “partisan interest.” “Not only is he trying to exploit national politics, but he is now trying to do it in Europe. This represents instability for European institutions and in itself demonstrates Feijóo’s lack of responsibility,” he concluded.
Inside, in the room, the strategy of the popular party has been clear since early morning: save Mazón with an attack on the centralized government in the figure of the vice-president, whose access to the Commission they are trying to boycott . “Teresa Ribera is responsible,” spokesman Miguel Tellado said during the monitoring session. Previously, the popular came to ask for explanations from the Executive on the whereabouts of Pedro Sánchez or his vice-president at five o’clock in the afternoon of October 29, at the very moment when we learned that the President of the Generalitat was locked up and without cover. in the booth of a restaurant with a Valencian journalist.
“We wonder what the government did during the most critical two and a half hours of the disaster. What were you doing, Mr. Torres? Not a phone call. What was Mr Sánchez doing in India, Ms Ribera in Brussels, Mr Morán in Colombia or the director of civil protection in Brazil? It’s 5 p.m. in the afternoon. “Why didn’t Mr. Marlaska declare a state of national emergency that afternoon?” declared PP deputy César Sánchez, who accused the executive of “resigning from his responsibilities” and to have “abandoned the Valencians on the very afternoon of October 29 for not having declared a national emergency”. emergency.”
“All they have to do is try to escape their responsibilities. But we are not going to get into their provocations, we are not going to get into political evaluations at the moment, we will have time,” responded María Jesús Montero from her seat. The vice president raised his voice against the PP to emphasize that, even if for the moment they avoid public criticism, the leadership of the Generalitat has no possible defense. “The facts are indisputable, even if you persist in lying about what the president said. But we are already used to their lies. Remember the Prestige, the Yak-42 or the 11-M,” he noted amid the murmurs of the popular bench.
The PP: angry with Von der Leyen
For its part, the PP leadership responds with disdain to von der Leyen’s explicit support for Ribera and to the hypothetical failure of his boycott attempt: “Ask von der Leyen.” Relations between Feijóo and the President of the Commission have been poor for years and deteriorated as the community leader grew closer to Pedro Sánchez.
“Yesterday, the Spanish candidate did not pass the first exam. “This is an unusual and worrying situation for Europe and our country,” Feijóo said. But the reality is different. It’s not that Ribera didn’t pass the exam, it’s that there was no vote. Neither on her, nor on the other candidates.
Feijóo described as “blackmail” the fact that the government maintains its commitment to Ribera, while hiding that the European PP, including his own, is putting pressure on the Social Democrats and Liberals in Brussels to accept the candidate ultra Giorgia Meloni. In fact, the EPP conditions support for Ribera on the support of other people for Raffaele Fitto.
The leader of the PP refused to intervene this Wednesday to respond to the Minister of Territorial Policy during his extraordinary appearance at DANA. In fact, Feijóo was absent from the entire debate. He then tried to justify himself and stressed that he could not intervene due to the absence of the President of the Government, on an official trip to Azerbaijan. And he redoubled his attacks against Ribera, whom he even threatened in court.
