“We must all take responsibility and think constructively about the consequences (…) for our union, our coexistence and our institutions. These are the words Felipe VI uttered in his Christmas message to Spaniards as he addressed what he called the “erosion of institutions”. On the same day, an agreement of the progressive sector of the CGPJ was signed to activate the appointment of two magistrates of the Constitutional Court. But the monarch’s words did not seem to impress Alberto Nunez Feijo. The PP leader has no intention of unblocking the judges’ governing body, which is headed for the end of its five-year mandate unless the government accepts each of its changing terms.
And all this despite the fact that Spain’s right-wing leader assured in the balance of 2022 that one of his goals for the coming year is to put “politics above the blocs” and “overcome the continuous clashes and divisions between the blocs”. “The CGPJ can continue to carry out its functions normally,” he said while demanding that the government return by law to the body its full powers, suspended a few months ago, to force negotiations that came but Feijo himself broke on the verge of an agreement.
Speaking to the media, Feijo advocated “restoring respect for institutions, laws and the constitution.” In accordance with the King’s message, but without giving a single sign of consent, if Pedro Sánchez does not comply with his demands, which include breaking the parliamentary majority that supports the coalition executive, refusing to appoint Juan Carlos Campo and Laura Díaz in the constitutional elections. Although they received the unanimous consent of the current magistrates of the Court of Guarantee), to repeal the recently approved reform of the Criminal Code, as well as to adopt new rules for the selection not only of CGPJ members, but also of lawyers. General of the state, high judicial positions and many others.
A position that is confirmed by sources around Feijo. Although it is the will of the PP to renew the CGPJ, they immediately point out: “They know the framework of our negotiations.” The right-wing leader strongly attacked Sánchez: “I offered a dialogue, I received contempt. I offered a deal, got insulted. I offered my word, I received a lie.” “Mr. Sánchez does not want to be associated with a party that is an alternative,” he added, accusing him of “taking the irreversible path to an institutional crisis.” “Their only goal is to bankrupt the state,” he concluded.
At the same time, Feijo congratulated himself on the agreement, unexpectedly for the conservative sector, which was reached in court to renew the constitutional constitution. “It is good news that the CGPJ, unanimously, will appoint two recognized prestige and three years of work experience in the master’s degree,” he said, concluding: “The government should apologize. It is becoming increasingly clear that the government does not want to renew the CGPJ, but to control it. Not the renewal of the constitution, but the control.
In case there was any doubt about his intentions, he added: “We have strengthened and strengthened judicial independence. We will continue to work on this path.”
Sanchez, “Amoral”
Feijo began his summary of 2022 with an almost apocalyptic economic and social analysis. Despite the fact that after the Russian invasion of Ukraine there was no PP-blown recession, fuel did not reach three euros per liter, and the Iberian gas cap allowed for a reduction in electricity bills, the right-wing leader did not get it. He refrained from referring to a “deep economic crisis” that required “clarity, answers and solutions”, which he said the coalition government was not offering.
The PP president assured that Spain faces “a legislature lost for economic purposes” because “it is poorer and in debt than in 2018”. “Citizens are not protected when inequality increases,” he said, estimating “more than 13 million people at risk of poverty and more than 4 million in severe material deprivation.” “It is not safe to see the price of the most expensive shopping basket in the EU,” he noted.
Despite his party rejecting VAT cuts on electricity and gas in 2021 and not supporting the new cuts approved this summer, Feijo directly named “electricity and gas” as one of the main economic problems. PP called the gas price cap “Iberian fraud”.
He also dismissed the VAT cuts announced by Pedro Sánchez on Tuesday as coming “late and badly” because, he noted, they are not aimed at all “basic foods”. According to him, it is an “anomaly” that this measure is approved after Christmas. “This is unbecoming of a government with minimal social sensitivity,” he concluded.
In this chapter Feijo intensified his attacks on Pedro Sánchez and the coalition executive in general. “The government refuses to help vulnerable groups, it will not give up ministries or hundreds of high positions,” he said, without specifying what kind of help he was talking about. “The government is going to save the fuel subsidy to finance the drop in VAT,” he added, to call for the 20 cent discount to be maintained “at least for self-employed workers and people on middle and low incomes”. Nor did he explain how he will implement the mentioned discount.
The climax came when Feijo called Pedro Sánchez “immoral” for the “electoral minicheque”, as he called the direct aid of 200 euros that the government will approve for families with incomes of less than 27,000 euros. “It is immoral that the government finances the vacation of 17-year-olds with 400 euros, double the 200 that it distributes to socially vulnerable families. This is immoral,” he said.
Feijóo did not specify that the €200 check is addressed to 4.2 million families (about eight million people) and its estimated value, according to Gesta, is €1,300 million. The cultural check represents a game of 210 million euros.
Feijo and Ayuso, v. Vox
The leader of the PP also made a short internal balance, limited to his arrival at the national headquarters on Calle Génova in Madrid last April. “In the last eight months, we have achieved a historic victory in the most populous autonomous community,” he said regarding Andalusia. After praising Juan Manuel Moreno, Feijo claimed that they had “commanded the party at the regional level” and “closed almost all candidacies in provincial capitals and cities” before the May 2023 elections.
In this election, Feijo is making a good part of his options to win the general election scheduled for the end of the year. The PP leader trusts municipal and regional appeals to bring him down to Sánchez. For this reason, it aspires to “transfer all autonomous governments”. And something to win for the PSOE. “We believe we can win in any community” run by socialists.
To achieve this, both in May and at the end of the year, the strategy also involves breaking up Vox or co-running with them. According to the polls, something is inevitable, which Feijo does not rule out, if necessary. The far-right is an uneasy partner for Feijóo’s PP, which reiterated this Thursday that it wants a “label-free” project to attract socialist voters disaffected with Sánchez. But at the end of a tragic year for macho terrorism, for example, the insistence of Santiago Abascal’s party on denying the mere existence of macho violence puts this goal in jeopardy.
Feijo made a quantitative and qualitative leap in his appearance when referring to Vox, in light of what Isabel Díaz Ayuso said on Wednesday and precisely about the new budget fiasco in the community of Madrid. “I don’t know if there is a Vox fighter who understood that their representatives in Madrid voted for the 2023 bill,” he said. “Voks voters are more and more clear that if they want an alternative to the government Sanchista There is only one alternative with the independents,” he added, and to decide: the rest is to offer opportunities to the Sánchez government and the independent parties.”
Source: El Diario
