The echoes of Pedro Sánchez's delay when arriving at the military parade of the National Holiday that yesterday forced the King and Queen of Spain to wait a few seconds without getting out of the car have been noted this Thursday in the Congress of Deputies. The Vox parliamentary group has waited in the outer courtyard of the Lower House for the President of the Government to start his intervention to, at that moment, make an appearance by interrupting his intervention in a premeditated way as a revenge.
It was 09:00 sharp when Sánchez took the floor to report on the informal meeting of the European Council on October 7 and to report on the economic and social measures adopted to respond to the crisis caused by the war in Ukraine. But on the bench of the ultra-nationalist party were only its national leader, Santiago Abascal, and his parliamentary spokesman, Iván Espinosa de los Monteros.
It has been, already two minutes after the intervention, when the ultra-nationalist deputies have made an appearance, forcing the President of Congress, Meritxell Batet, to call them to order and ask their honorable Members for silence.
Sánchez, for his part, limited himself to sketching a smile from the stands.
Yesterday, the Prime Minister justified his delay in arriving at the military parade by assuring that he left La Moncloa at the time he was told. Sánchez gave this explanation in the informal conversations he had with journalists at the official reception at the Royal Palace. The president arrived at the Plaza de Lima when the vehicle with the Kings was already there, with which speculation arose as to whether the chief executive was trying to avoid the boos with this gesture.
This situation was commented on by other political leaders in their own huddles at the royal reception. The PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, who said he had no record of this episode, downplayed the delay and declared himself convinced that it would have been involuntary. The Minister of the Presidency, Félix Bolaños, who also claimed to be unaware of the detail, added that he was sure that it would have been motivated by some cause.
But the president of Vox, Santiago Abascal, on the contrary, said that it seemed incredible to him that the Government had put a person preventing the Kings from leaving the official car so that they had to wait for the president. He joked that Sánchez had been "painted" (made up) more than ever, but luckily he only had one parade left for the National Holiday, next year's, the last one before the general elections.
