The first duel Sánchez-Feijóo in the Senate will focus on the economy

The first parliamentary debate between the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, and the new leader of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, in the session of control of the Executive will serve for both to oppose their economic recipes in the face of rising prices and the economic crisis, with a question about the situation of Spanish families.

Thomas Osborne
Thomas Osborne
07 June 2022 Tuesday 01:45
13 Reads
The first duel Sánchez-Feijóo in the Senate will focus on the economy

The first parliamentary debate between the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, and the new leader of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, in the session of control of the Executive will serve for both to oppose their economic recipes in the face of rising prices and the economic crisis, with a question about the situation of Spanish families.

This will be the first time that Feijóo questions Sánchez in a control session of the Upper House, where two weeks ago he took possession of the seat as senator by regional appointment after abandoning all his previous responsibilities in the Xunta de Galicia.

Feijóo's question to the President of the Government will be about whether "he considers that his Executive is up to the needs of Spanish families" in the face of the economic situation they are going through after the covid-19 pandemic and Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Feijóo will have the opportunity to ask the President of the Government once a month at the Government control session in the Senate, since not being a deputy he does not have the opportunity to do so in Congress every Wednesday, as is usual in opposition leaders.

Feijóo sees the economy in a "limit situation" and believes that Sánchez is a "ballast" that does not count the economic reality, but rather makes up figures such as unemployment thanks to the conversion of temporary contracts into discontinuous permanent ones.

According to the PP, two models will be seen in the Senate: that of Sánchez's "incompetence, tension and lack of credibility" and that of Feijóo's stability, growth and "proposals". In addition, the popular ones hope that Sánchez, whom they see as weak and nervous, moderates his tone and abandons the insults.

The Government and the PSOE have instead chosen to play down the pulse. The spokeswoman for the Executive, Isabel Rodríguez, argued that Feijóo is "nothing more" the leader of the opposition and that his arrival in the Upper House "has not changed anything", so Sánchez will not go to the Senate more frequently, if not which he will do, as up to now, once a month, as long as his schedule allows.

After colliding with the unemployment figures, where Feijóo's make-up complaint has received a reply from several leaders, from the Minister of Labor, Yolanda Díaz, to the former president José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, the Executive asks the leader of the PP for rigor, before the that he will defend his "very good" economic management, while he is already working on the future extension of the decree with anti-crisis measures.

In this regard, the Government asks the PP to move from no. "We would like it to be something new because so far what we have seen is a leader who looks too much like Mr. Casado," Rodríguez said.

The face to face between Sánchez and Feijóo also occurs when the electoral campaign continues in Andalusia, with the popular Juanma Moreno in the lead and at the expense of being able to govern alone or having to do so with Vox, and while in national political life the disagreements between the coalition partners over NATO, prostitution or tax revenues.

In addition, the parliamentary duel between the President of the Government and the Chief Executive takes place a day before Sánchez explains to Congress the new relations with Morocco, forced by his partners and by his opponents, including the PP, who reproach him for his unilateral turn towards Western Sahara.