Pedro Sánchez and Alberto Núñez Feijóo began a tactical war yesterday in search of a tiebreaker between the left and right blocks after 23-J with the hypothetical electoral repetition hovering over their heads.
Conditioned by the extremely high cost that carrying the responsibility of a return to the polls would entail – the same one that struck down Albert Rivera and fatally wounded Ciudadanos in 2019 – the acting president of the Government and the national leader of the Popular Party measured his steps well through an epistolary conversation more leisurely than the verbal immediacy that governs the new times.
The first step for dialogue was given by Feijóo, at the edge of 3:00 p.m. In his letter, he demanded that Sánchez hold a meeting that would facilitate his investiture, staging a negotiating process that could clear up the governance equation in the midst of the Spanish presidency of the European Union.
The leader of the popular not only intended to circumvent the formal request to the King to lead a round of negotiations that, with the data in hand, would show his lack of support, but also sought to force the PSOE to make official its refusal to come to terms with him to , in that case, to be able to hang the responsibility of a hypothetical electoral repetition on him as soon as possible.
Brandishing the argument that "we cannot afford a blockade", Feijóo requested the meeting with the "purpose of establishing a responsible dialogue for the benefit of the political and institutional stability of Spain" given the "complexity" of the electoral results. And, at the same time, it was presented as a breakwater against "possible negative combinations that polarize society, seriously damage territorial cohesion and push our constitutional system to the limit."
All this referring to the fact that "throughout our entire democratic history, it has always been recognized that the political force that wins in general elections is the one that should govern."
The popular president thus sought to take the initiative at the start of the week, after having been reinforced by the extra seat obtained on Friday after the recount of the foreign vote and which results in a scenario of blockade with a tie at 171 deputies between the blocs of the left and the right.
Pedro Sánchez's response arrived shortly after 7:30 p.m. The acting President of the Government deactivated the envelope raised by his adversary, to which he replied that he will not meet with him until the King designates a candidate for investiture. A circumstance that will not occur before August 17, the date on which Congress and the Senate will be constituted.
In a text riddled with reminders of the PP's contradictions, Sánchez began by thanking the opposition leader for the opportunity to "resume the communication interrupted abruptly and unilaterally with the rupture of the preliminary agreement for the renewal of the General Council of the Judiciary that It has been pending for more than four years.”
And in response to the request for the list with the most votes to govern, the President of the Government made use of article 99 of the Constitution to recall that the democratic system "has clear rules for the configuration of the government that conform to the principles of the parliamentary democracy that establishes in the sphere of the Congress of Deputies the space in which the majorities that allow the investiture of the candidate who obtains the necessary support must be articulated”.
Sánchez's list of messages to Feijóo did not end there. After recalling that the PP has made use of this "basic principle every time it has allowed it to reach the presidency of regional governments and mayoralties despite not being the force with the most votes, nor the one with the largest number of seats", it has made him ugly the recent agreements signed with Vox after 28-M.
"Governments that are adopting measures that imply disturbing setbacks in matters as important as social dialogue, equality, diversity or the environment," Sánchez specified to once again leave the ball on the roof of Genoa 13.
