The new delay in the approval of the Family Law and the PSOE’s decision to proceed with changes to the Transcanon have brought Podemos back to the table. This time, Ione Bellara’s formation, which is convinced that the Socialists are trying to torpedo their rules, accuses Pedro Sánchez of thinking in electoral terms. Moncloa is trying to minimize the tension and attribute the legislative process to a “deliberative” process, while again denying that the president is thinking about pressing the button to go ahead with the election.
The cohabitation of PSOE and Unidas Podemos in the first coalition government after the restoration of democracy became difficult, but the blood never reached the river, as it happened with all right-wing biparties at the regional level. In the nearly three years of the government’s existence, the Agreement Monitoring Commission has only been convened a few times to resolve conflicts, such as the “only yes is yes” law, immediately after its enactment, or the reform work.
Even now, with inconsistencies in some of the executive branch’s flagship regulations, such as repealing the Understanding Act, the Trans Act, or the Housing Act, neither party is proposing to convene this body aimed at a political solution. conflicts. “I don’t see the need to call any additional meeting because the coalition government is constantly in contact,” said spokeswoman Isabel Rodríguez after the cabinet meeting.
Rodríguez tried to eliminate the existing disagreements in the coalition. “This government’s action can be judged by debate before it is completed, as is the case today with the Trafficking Act, or by debate before this government acts.” What the Spanish value is the completion of every agreement of this government and, therefore, the final action of the government,” added the press secretary, citing as examples the reduction of inflation or the approval of the budget. “Differences are absolutely normal in a coalition government (…). I don’t keep the noise, I keep the rights and the advances,” said the Minister of the Presidency, Felix Bolaños, in an interview on Cadena SER a few hours later, where he explained the “noise” as “pure rubbish”.
Despite calls for calm, both sides are showing wear and tear, and regular skirmishes are so-called. In state politics or police action in Melilla, in recent hours the clash over pension reform and, above all, the laws promoted by Podemos.
It is not understood by the Ministry of Social Rights that Moncloa delayed the approval of the Family Law. The socialist wing’s argument is that this rule was not included in the agenda of the Council of Ministers at the last meeting of state secretaries and deputy secretaries because, according to socialist sources, there were “observations” from other ministries.
This, added to the PSOE’s claim to amend the trans law, leads Podemos to believe that there are “too many signs” that the Socialists are “blocking” the regulations coming out of the departments in their hands. From Bellara’s party, however, the head of the presidency, Félix Bolaños, who is responsible for organizing government activities, assured that the laws “do not come from the PSOE, nor from Unidas Podemos, but from the government” in an interview on Cadena SER. In which he once again used the trick of weighting the socialists within the coalition.
We may be afraid of early elections
“We don’t want to think that the PSOE is making any kind of political or electoral calculations, but worrying signs are piling up,” warned United We Can representative in Congress, Pablo Echenik, to which his Socialist colleague replied: “Let’s not look for ghosts where there are none There are.” “If we were making political calculations, it would be best if all the laws were to continue now,” Patxi Lopez added.
However, there are those in the leadership of Podemos who do not hide their concern about the different scenarios that the president might have to deal with by 2023. “PSOE has never made such an emphasis on a coalition,” reflected the party leader. One scenario Belara residents are considering is that Pedro Sánchez forces a hasty end to the legislature and calls an election as soon as the election gives him a break. A thesis that the PSOE categorically denies, but will be based on the fear of a bad economic outlook, with poor forecasts for the regional and municipal elections in May, always according to the analysis of Podemos.
In search of explanations for what they consider to be the premeditated obstruction of norms related to Podemos ministries, such as families or transcanons, the Bellarelli work on the second hypothesis and arrive at the point that the head of the presidency can exhaust the legislature but without its ministers. That is, the executive departure of Irene Montero and Ione Bellara, both party leaders and voices particularly critical of the PSOE. As for the possibility that Podemos is the one who decides to leave the Council of Ministers for blocking some of its emblematic laws, they claim: “The coalition is a conquest of Podemos, our people will not understand it.”
Doubts about the formation founded by Pablo Iglesias are fueled by two more circumstances. On the one hand, the party’s direct dialogue with Moncloa practically does not exist. On the other hand, there is a clear distrust of those who carry out this dialogue, that is, the second vice-president, Yolanda Díaz, who is accused of soft positions in the internal dynamics of the government in relation to the PSOE, especially on issues. which are not related to his service. “The PSOE exploits this weakness,” criticizes the Podemos leader, who points out: “In matters related to consumption, equality and social rights, it does not exert internal pressure.”
Yolanda Díaz’s team denies these allegations, recalling that the vice president not only insisted on protecting the trans law like the Ministry of Equality, but managed to unblock it in the executive branch directly with Pedro Sánchez. Something similar is said to have happened with family law.
In Moncloa, the backlash is loud and they are closing the door completely to electoral progress, although in the socialist ranks they are starting to grow weary of the pressure that the minority partner is exerting through the media, because they believe that it will come at a price. on progressive forces. In the president’s team, they destroy the theses of their partner at the end of the legislature and argue that there is an attraction of mayors and socialist presidents, which will allow the PSOE to be the first force in the municipal elections of 2023. Traditionally, the party that wins this election is set for the next general election.
In addition, Sánchez is confident that the economic situation will ease and Alberto Núñez Feijo will come to the polls exhausted. “Under these conditions we will continue to work in the coming months because there is still time for the next general election,” the spokesman said after listing some of the coalition’s achievements in recent weeks, including passing the budget through Congress with a comfortable majority.
The socialist wing of the government is watching the struggle in the confederation space with concern, but all leaders consulted in recent months agree to rule out the possibility of a coalition break before the election. “It’s too cold outside the government,” claimed socialist sources about Podemos ending up outside the executive branch. “It is important for the left-wing political space to have a political project that is unique,” Bolaños admitted on Tuesday.
Source: El Diario
