How frightened the average voter of the Popular Party must have been when he saw the cover of La Razón on Sunday: “The PP considers that the amnesty is exhausted and will use other subjects.” It is the end of the equality of the Spanish people and the beginning of a new process, according to the party’s argument, but there comes a time when even they realize that there is no more wine in the bottle, no matter how much they squeeze.
The monothem shows clear signs of exhaustion and then there are things that are hard for people to swallow. Presenting Salvador Illa as the new architect of the independence process requires such an act of faith that the most normal thing is that we end up making a hole in the roof.
It is time to think about the PP. According to this newspaper, the issues that are most likely to guide the new discourse from the start are housing and reconciliation. The reader has the right to raise his eyebrows to the breaking point. The regional and local institutions governed by the party do not even implement the housing law approved in the previous legislature.
Until this summer, they maintained that the problem was not so serious and that the abundance of tourist apartments, most of them illegal, only demonstrated the strength of tourism. The response that José Luis Martínez Almeida gave in 2021 – “Exactly” – to the accusation of Más Madrid that he was not doing anything “to regulate rental prices in Madrid” remains symbolic. They are not going there, so the doubt remains as to the most effective methods they can think of.
The truth is that the PP has delivered contradictory messages in its ideas on housing. It now recognises the existence of a structural problem that particularly affects young people, but proposes solutions that have been used before with varying intensity and that have not led to significant changes in prices. For example, “a guarantee of up to 15% of the total price of the home to complement the financing of young people’s mortgage loans” (this sounds like the type of measures favoured by the PSOE). The market is fast and cruel. It tends to increase prices to compensate for this type of aid, even if it is reserved for a group.
Distancing ourselves from Catalonia would theoretically allow us to try to establish relations with Junts specifically to overthrow the government initiatives in Congress. The less talk of amnesty, the easier it will be for both parties to vote in the same direction. In any case, this alliance against him is based above all on the desire of Carles Puigdemont’s party to punish the PSOE after remaining in opposition in Parliament. The debate on the financing of Catalonia and the other autonomous communities will continue, making a PP-Junts pact a chimera today.
Then there is the reality that you cannot prevent journalists from asking for things or other groups or institutions from taking measures that concern you. First, you say that you are already full of the Catalan menu and two days later you ask for more. On Monday, Alberto Núñez Feijóo was asked what he thought about the fact that the Constitutional Court (TC) has asked its lawyers for a report on whether it is obliged to accept the appeals against the amnesty law raised by 14 autonomous governments of the PP and almost all of its parliaments.
As expected, Feijóo finds it intolerable that the right of appeal of the autonomous communities could be questioned. From the outset, he clarifies that the presidents of their governments are “ordinary representatives of the State” in their regions and have the duty to “safeguard the interests of the State” there. With this argument, the autonomous communities would have the right to appeal to the TC against any law approved by Congress. Perhaps the Constitutional Court does not want to set this precedent – while the amnesty does not affect regional powers – unless a judicial report tells it that it has no choice.
The fact is that it amounts to the same thing. Feijóo is forced to speak in public about the usual raca raca, this time because of the questions from journalists.
The regional leaders are not going to stop talking about financing and the Catalans. The president of the Andalusian Junta is very involved in this issue. He cannot allow Ayuso to monopolize the regional offensive. “I am not going to accept that a Catalan has more than an Andalusian,” said Juanma Moreno, posing the controversy in the terms that are most favorable to him. He will be the one who defends all the Andalusians so that the Catalans do not keep the money while the socialists of the region are behind without daring to go to him.
In this business, facts are useless. “The Catalan separatists spent tens of billions of euros on embassies and the process. And now we are going to have to pay for it among all Spaniards?” Moreno asked about the debate on debt cancellation. Tens of billions? If you have proof, you could just as well have sent it to the Supreme Court.
It is clear that Moreno is mistaken about the numbers. Thanks to a CCOO report that compiles data published on the community transparency portal, it has just been learned that his government has 700 more freely appointed officials than there were in 2019 when he came to power. Compared to those selected by Susana Díaz’s government, this figure has increased by 30%. Not only are department heads elected to positions of trust, but the method is also used in lower positions.
His electoral program in 2018 said: “Free appointment must cease to be the most common form of awarding positions of higher category and responsibility in Andalusia.” Moreno was surely unable to carry out his program because of the Catalans.
