The Canary Coalition vote caused the showy confrontation between Vox and the Popular Party during the first session of the Congress of Deputies. This is a little-known detail of the maneuvers that left Alberto Núñez Feijóo at the feet of the horses during the voting of the Table, last Thursday.
The leader of the Popular Party wanted at all costs to have the support of the only deputy of the Canary Islands Coalition, Cristina Valido. Feijóo wanted that support to be able to add 172 votes, a magical figure with which to reinforce his aspirations for the investiture and convey to the country an image of solvency in the face of the possible volatility of the alliances of the left. Three objectives: go to Zarzuela with a basket of 172 votes, leave Pedro Sánchez in the hands of Junts' affirmative vote, and maintain gentle but constant pressure on the Basque Nationalist Party, a friendly formation of the Canary Islands Coalition, which in other circumstances could having leaned towards the Galician politician. Feijóo has cultivated very good relations with Lehendakari Iñigo Urkullu in recent years, but the PNV has Basque elections next spring, with EH Bildu hot on its heels.
One hundred and seventy-two sure votes, compared to the socialist hypothesis still subject to negotiation, to hard negotiation with Junts per Catalunya and Esquerra Republicana. 172 seats in hand, compared to the fourteen votes still flying from the socialist hypothesis. (The fourteen deputies that make up Junts and ERC). It was necessary to attract the Canarian Coalition and the Canarian nationalists had already made it known publicly that they would not support a combination of the popular with Vox, not even at the Congress Table.
Consequently, the leading group of the PP decided to do without Vox for the Table, in the belief that there would be no reprisals, since no formal agreement had been reached in this regard. Faced with this change, Coalición Canaria went from abstention to voting in favor of Cuca Gamarra. Finding itself excluded, the far-right party opted for a brilliant action of punishment, the ultimate consequences of which we will learn this week when the King appoints a candidate for the presidency of the Government. They voted for themselves and the popular harvest was reduced to 139 ballots, to the astonishment of Núñez Feijóo, who had not been informed of this serious risk. On Thursday afternoon there was a very tense meeting on Calle Génova to examine what had happened.
Vox has hinted that, after Thursday's episode, this week it can inform the King that it is again supporting the PP candidate, without demanding entry into the Government. Those of Santiago Abascal now have a lever with which to put pressure: Murcia. Entry of Vox into the government of the Region of Murcia – an option until now rejected by the Murcian PP – in exchange for an orderly return to Club 172. In turn, the PP can threaten Vox with repeating the elections in Murcia, if they are not produces unconditional support for Feijóo's candidacy. Canary Coalition will be today the first political formation to be received by the King. We will see what his position will be. A week ago his first conditions were: Vox out of the Government and negotiation of a Canarian agenda.
A week ago, his proposal was that the Basque Nationalist Party preside over the Congress. It was advanced by Fernando Clavijo Batlle, president of the Government of the Canary Islands, in an interview with La Vanguardia. The PSOE did not pick up the gauntlet and was even irritated by the proposal. The interview of the socialist negotiator, Félix Bolaños, with Clavijo, last Monday – a week ago today – did not go well. The Socialists preferred to focus on negotiating with Junts and Esquerra, to move towards an investiture pact, and at the same time ensure control of the Congressional Board in the face of a very, very difficult legislature.
The novel idea of the presidency of the Congress for the PNV was the macguffin of the Canarian operation, concerted with the Basque nationalists, since both formations, with few contradictory interests, have been collaborating for years. The basic objective was the entry of the PNV in the Table and outline the existence of a Basque-Canary Islands axis with six votes, capable of balancing the situation.
The PNV, always secretive, always devoted to the Society of Jesus, allied itself with the Canaries and approached Junts, after a coldness of six years, which began immediately after the events of October 2017. Junts, in turn , supported the entry of the PNV in the Table, without making it its main point. Bildu was against it - he did not want to enhance his electoral opponent in Euskadi -, without daring to formulate an express veto. ERC, a friend of Bildu's, also frowned.
The PSOE at no time wanted to cede a position to the PNV, which would have turned this party into the balance of the governing body of Congress. Only if the negotiation with Junts had become very complicated, the Socialists would have resorted to that emergency solution.
Any complex situation always ends up decanting. Seeing that the PSOE agreed with Junts and ERC without granting a position to the PNV, Feijóo ordered to attract the Canary Islands Coalition and then the transmission chain with Vox was broken.
Junts, reconciled with the PNV, has the key. And the canaries, friends of the PNV, have a key, bathed in gold.
