Among a wave of Spanish flags (some also from the PP and one isolated from Vox), the president of the Popular Party, Alberto Nuñez Feijóo, called on critics of Pedro Sánchez to “demonstrate with facts” their opposition to the amnesty and to the pacts with the independentists. In a déjà vu of what already happened in the days prior to the investiture vote of Feijóo himself, the leader of the PP regretted that no socialist says enough: “If they only talk and do not demonstrate it with facts, that makes them equal to Sánchez ”, he emphasized, trying to crack the seams of the socialists. The investiture looms and tension is increasing in the ranks of both parties.
Yesterday, in Valencia – by the way, the region where socialist militancy most widely endorsed the agreements for the investiture – the Valencian PP turned against the amnesty. The forcefulness of the messages was hyperbolic, to the point that the mayor of Valencia, María José Catalá, did not hesitate to call to defend Spain “with the nails” – “with the teeth”, added the Valencian president, Carlos Mazón – after ensure that “the left cannot walk down the street with its head held high.”
"Not in our name," Catalá repeated. "We are not going to tolerate the humiliation of Spain and the Valencian Community," said Mazón.
València, which has once again been a fortress for the popular after the municipal and regional elections, turned out yesterday – 20,000 people, according to the organizers, 10,000, according to the Government delegation – to shout against the amnesty in a tense atmosphere and with harsh messages against the President of the Government, the independentistas and the left in general. “Puigdemont to prison” was the slogan that resonated most strongly in the Plaza de Els Furs (the Valencian jurisdictions abolished after the conquest of Felipe V), but jail was also demanded for the leader of the PSOE who was accused of being a traitor. .
Once the concentration was over, there were those who insistently, megaphone in hand, called to go to the headquarters of the Socialist Party, emulating the climate of tension that has been experienced these days in the capital of Spain in front of the Ferraz headquarters, with the former president Esperanza Aguirre from Madrid, among the agitators.
In this context, Feijóo was cautious when measuring his words to combine that idea of “defending Spain from the street” without questioning the institutions. “They are going to have us in front of them”, “we are going to be in the streets next to the majority” of Spaniards, were some of his phrases to make it clear that his party “is not going to let one pass” to Pedro Sanchez.
In this sense, he indicated that PP is going to fight for "the equality of all Spaniards" from the city councils, the autonomies, the Senate, the Congress (where he recalled that they are the majority group after winning the elections), all judicial and European institutions. “They are going to have us in front of them,” he stressed.
There was even a moment in which the leader of the PP took Sánchez's investiture for granted, but he quickly reassured those in attendance: "His Presidency will be nothing, but Spain will continue." Feijóo was convinced that the PP is a party “that governs when it wins and that accepts being in the opposition” even if it has won the elections, which is why he stated that he will “never move from respect for the institutions.”
