“If the enemy is making a mistake, let's not distract him.” This phrase, attributed to Napoleon Bonaparte, fits Pedro Sánchez like a glove in the face of the protest called by the Popular Party for tomorrow in Madrid and the investiture debate to which, just 48 hours later, Alberto Núñez Feijóo himself will appear.
At Moncloa and Ferraz they recognize that the strategy deployed by Feijóo since, almost a month ago, the King entrusted him with his investiture, does nothing more than propel Sánchez towards his re-election.
Firstly, because of the PP leader's own attempt to face an investiture that they insist he has lost beforehand, but which he will attend "hand in hand" with the far-right of Vox, which may be the best glue to articulate a block of yes to Sánchez. And calling a protest against the investiture of the leader of the PSOE, encouraged by José María Aznar, just before Feijóo faces his, they consider to be the culmination of an erroneous strategy, plagued by "daily lurches", with which they ensure that the leader of the PP only seeks to survive against his internal rivals.
The definitive nonsense, they warn, is what they consider to be "an incitement to transfuguism", after PP heavyweights such as Juanma Moreno yesterday insisted on demanding that PSOE deputies rebel against Sánchez to invest Feijóo. Even the beneficiary of the tamayazo that in 2003 prevented Rafael Simancas from winning the presidency of Madrid, Esperanza Aguirre, hoped yesterday that a similar situation would be repeated. Not to invest Feijóo, but to prevent Sánchez's re-election.
At Moncloa and Ferraz they warn that such proposals can only be the result of “despair.” But they unite the PSOE and even serve to reinforce a bloc of yes to Sánchez.
“Now is the time for Feijóo's investiture, but when Sánchez's time comes, he will have covered as much of the path as possible,” the PSOE leadership predicts.
For now, while Feijóo's investiture arrives, Sánchez has already secured two absolute majorities in the first stages of this still uncertain legislature: to form the Congress Board, with the socialist Francina Armengol as president, and to approve an express reform of its regulations which already guarantees the use of all co-official languages.
Absolute majorities – of 178 seats in the first case and up to 180 in the second, when the Canarian Coalition joined the linguistic consensus and the wrong vote of a tipped PP deputy –, which Sánchez would have to try to consolidate in order to face a legislature four years, as intended. But in any case they are much higher than the simple majority of 167 yeses, and the 18 abstentions of ERC and EH Bildu, which allowed his previous investiture in January 2020.
