With 48 hours to go before the debate on his investiture, which is expected to fail, and with the support of his barons and former presidents José María Aznár and Mariano Rajoy, the leader of the Popular Party, Alberto Núñez Feijo, is trying to put on a show this week. Power on the streets in favor of the alternative to Pedro Sánchez’s government and the amnesty it is running with the Catalan independence movement.
Feijo will pass the investiture this Wednesday without enough support to be elected president, but he is trying to show the weight of his party, which governs the majority of Spain’s autonomies and cities after the May 28 election. The PP is also trying to close ranks with its candidate amid a difficult week in which, barring a surprise, he will fail in his first attempt to reach Montclois.
“We reject amnesty because it is an agreement between a fugitive from justice and an ambitious prisoner,” Madrid Mayor José Luis Martínez-Almeida said in a speech welcoming Feijo to the capital. “Sanchez and his supporters should be clear because we are not going to give up.” We will win because we are on the side of reason, common sense and equality,” added the mayor.
The society’s president, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, also criticized Sánchez’s possible collusion with “those who staged a coup d’état against Spain in 2017” and called the October 1 referendum “an illegal act at the hands of those people.” “They committed some of the worst crimes against this nation.”
Under the motto “Take to the streets against amnesty, referendum and those who want to destroy our rule of law”, the PP mobilized against Sánchez’s potential attempt to destroy the constitution by approving the constitution. Amnesty and recognition of the right to self-determination. The event also comes two days before Feijo’s own investiture debate, and without Sanchez even trying to put a date on the calendar.
But Genova was keen this week to show street denial that the PSOE is negotiating with pro-independence parties in exchange for their votes in favor of re-launching a progressive coalition government led by Sánchez. For this, dozens of buses were hired from different parts of the peninsula to bring the protesters closer to the capital.
Although the PP claims the event was already planned, the party publicly announced the action after Aznar called for civil mobilization against the amnesty and to emulate the Spanish public’s “enough is enough” against the terrorist group ETA. The event, which was originally supposed to be held in the Plaza de España, was eventually moved to this new location, smaller than the original.
Ayuso campaign field
On Avenida Felipe II, the square in Madrid that Isabel Diaz Ayuso has used to launch her last two election campaigns, Feijo will also try to show her disapproval of a possible amnesty, which she considers “shameful”, “an amendment to the whole rule”. Law’ and ‘fraud’ for PSOE voters.
In the PP, they hope that the call, in the end a mass action and not a protest, will be successful, because they feel the “cry” of the citizens against the amnesty. The Feijóo rally will also involve former president Aznar da Rajoy, as well as Ayuso, president of the Madrid Society.
The meeting also comes amid efforts by the PP to push Socialist MPs against possible pacts with independents to break voting discipline, as well as criticism of Sánchez by incumbent PSOE leaders.
Sketch of Feijo’s investment speech
Feijo is set to deliver to attendees a few lines from his investiture speech, in which he argues that the PP defends the constitution, equality among Spaniards and Spain’s transitional heritage against the PSOE, which wants to “sell” Spain.
The PP is also set to leave a photo of unity after difficult weeks and internal uproar over the failure of the 23-J result, which no one expected. Virtually the entire list of PP regional presidents will be there, including Ayuso from Madrid, Juanma Moreno from Andalucia, as well as the Catalan PP president, Alejandro Fernandez, who has openly questioned Feijo over his decision to meet with Yuntes. What the PP leader backed down.
It is also the first public event Feijo has attended since election night in Madrid, when supporters who flocked to party headquarters in anticipation of a celebration found the result insufficient to rule and chanted “Ayuso, Ayuso”.
After checking the street’s reaction, Feijo’s next litmus test will be the investiture debate, when he makes his debut as speaker in the Congress of Deputies.
Source: El Diario
