Felipe González supports Sánchez and urges Feijóo to renew the Judiciary so as not to destabilize democracy

After breaking off the negotiation for the renewal of the General Council of the Judiciary, Alberto Núñez Feijóo nonetheless assured his willingness to seal great State pacts.

Thomas Osborne
Thomas Osborne
29 October 2022 Saturday 06:31
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Felipe González supports Sánchez and urges Feijóo to renew the Judiciary so as not to destabilize democracy

After breaking off the negotiation for the renewal of the General Council of the Judiciary, Alberto Núñez Feijóo nonetheless assured his willingness to seal great State pacts. But not with Pedro Sánchez, but "with another PSOE". And when in the Popular Party they oppose what they call "sanchismo" with what they say is the true PSOE, they always use Felipe González as a reference figure. But Feijóo's allusion to that "other PSOE" has punctured the bone this time, since the former Prime Minister himself has supported Sánchez and demanded that the leader of the PP, precisely, comply with his constitutional obligation to renew the Judiciary so as not to destabilize democracy and its institutions.

In the act that Felipe González has carried out this Saturday in Seville together with Pedro Sánchez, to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the socialist electoral victory of October 28, 1982 before more than 4,000 supporters, the former Prime Minister has been explicit about it. “If someone doesn't like a law, he has the right to change it. What you do not have the right to do is not comply with it”, González warned.

“It is easy to understand”, the former Prime Minister has summoned Feijóo, although without quoting him at any time. “First you comply with the law, and then you propose that it be changed. But first I don't skip it, or condition it to I don't know what else. That does not serve to stabilize democracy or improve coexistence”, González warned the leader of the PP, although without expressly alluding to a reform of the crime of sedition that Feijóo uses as a reason to break off negotiations with the Government to renew the top of the Judiciary, after almost four years of blockade and already beheaded after the resignation of Carlos Lesmes. “We have to preserve coexistence as a treasure”, González has demanded.

Pedro Sánchez, thus sheltered by Felipe González, has vindicated that same coexistence that the Constitution promotes, against a PP that regrets that it does not even recognize his legitimacy to be the President of the Government. “It is evident that there are political rivals, but never political enemies. We strive to win with reasons, but we recognize the result in electoral victory and defeat. And always, always, we are governed by democratic laws and we observe the Constitution to the letter", stressed the leader of the PSOE.

“When we win, we respect the institutions, and when we lose too. If the interest of the State is at stake, we close ranks around the Constitution when we are in government. And if we are in the opposition, we do the same in support of the Government”, Sánchez insisted. “And we have shown some proof to the whole of the Spanish population throughout our years in the opposition”, he pointed out, referring to the support of the PSOE for the Executive of Mariano Rajoy to apply article 155 of the Constitution in Catalonia after the declaration unilateral independence of 2017.

Sánchez has thus abounded in González's previous warnings. "The Constitution must be complied with from beginning to end, from the first to the last of the articles, every day of the year, whether you are in government or in opposition," he stressed. “As Felipe said, that political parties shamelessly fail to comply with the Constitution, is the defeat of moderation and the triumph of extremism, because it deteriorates our democracy and coexistence”, he has settled.

The President of the Government has also defended the "full political autonomy" of the PSOE, against a PP that he considers bent on other interests, which in his opinion is what has led Feijóo to blow up a judicial pact that was already finalized. “The PSOE is a party free from any pressure group, however powerful it may be. To those powers and interests, which, as we have seen these days, have trapped other political parties, we say loud and clear, and calmly, that the PSOE is an autonomous project, which will always defend and will only serve the social majority of Spain, never to privileged minorities as happened in the past”, Sánchez has blamed the PP.

“The PSOE is a project of change”, Sánchez has claimed, this Saturday in Seville, together with Felipe González. "For change" was the simple but forceful campaign slogan that a publicist gave to the PSOE and with which González ended up sweeping the general elections of October 28, 1982, with more than 10 million votes -48% of the total. total - which became an absolute majority of 202 deputies in Congress to promote the first left-wing government in Spain since the time of the Republic. Forty years later, after four years in Moncloa, although now there are only 120 socialist deputies in Congress, Sánchez has once again raised the banner of change in the face of the new electoral cycle.

Numerous ministers, such as Félix Bolaños, María Jesús Montero, Teresa Ribera, Isabel Rodríguez, Miquel Iceta, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, Pilar Alegría, attended the act of homage to Felipe González in Seville for his electoral victory 40 years ago. , Pilar Llop or Luis Planas. The most notable absence, however, has been that of González's right-hand man in the PSOE before that electoral triumph in 1982, former Vice President of the Government Alfonso Guerra, who days ago regretted not having been invited at first when he organized the event.

But González himself started his speech today, precisely, lamenting the absence of Guerra in an act of remembrance and remembrance. "I try to look for, and I regret not being able to, that singular character who raised my hand in the window of the Palace, who was Alfonso Guerra", highlighted the former Prime Minister. "And I want to have it in this hand!", González proclaimed, to great applause from the audience. Later, he has launched a veiled warning before this signal absence. "Who doesn't know where he comes from, doesn't know where he's going either."