The acting Spanish president, Pedro Sánchez, yesterday took on the King's task of forming a government, and he did so, he explained, with a much more ambitious goal to overcome the vote of the investiture, that of forming a great political agreement that allows the coalition Government to complete a legislature "of stability and progress". Sánchez wants the opening period to be productive, so that the country moves forward in two directions: the socio-economic progress of the middle and working classes and the strengthening of coexistence. In other words, the social axis and the territorial axis.
That is why a round of contacts will begin today at the Congress of Deputies, he explained, which will begin with the current second vice-president and leader of Sumar, Yolanda Díaz, with whom he intends to re-edit the bipartite government. Díaz has been sent a message of reassurance, after yesterday Sumar denounced the stalling of negotiations with the PSOE on delicate matters, such as the working day, the minimum wage, housing policies or speed and ambition of the objectives of the ecological transition. Sánchez, in this regard, has expressly mentioned the improvement of working conditions, stability of employment and wages as objectives of the coalition Government, he has also referred to the objective of improving accessibility to housing and the urgency of the objectives of the actions to alleviate the climate emergency.
With regard to what he has called the objectives to improve "coexistence", Sánchez ratified the rejection of the celebration of a self-determination referendum recalling that he has always opposed it and that it is not possible in the terms proposed to celebrate within the Constitution. Regarding this, and reinforced by the results of July 23 in Catalonia, where PSC, Sumar and PP were the first three forces, Sánchez affirmed that "what the Catalans want today is to turn a page and move forward with the reunion agenda with the rest of Spanish society".
However, without expressly referring to the amnesty, he not only appealed to "politics", "dialogue", "generosity" and "commitment", but also wanted to set as an example of the determination with the coalition Government's reunion agenda the pardons approved during the past legislature. The president in office and already a candidate for re-election emphasized that he promoted those pardons because at the time he had "the conviction" that they would contribute to the improvement of coexistence and political de-inflammation, a conviction, he added, that today has become a "finding". Sánchez recalled the deep political and institutional crisis in which the country found itself when in 2018 he acceded to the presidency of the Spanish Government - thanks to the motion of no confidence against Mariano Rajoy - and compared that situation with the situation the country is experiencing today , in which political inflammation has subsided in Catalonia and the option of unilateral break-up actions has lost a good part of the social support it had at the time.
Despite the admonitions made minutes before the appearance of the acting president by Alberto Núñez Feijóo, who predicted that the negotiation process of the new government will be marked by "lies" and "obscurantism", Sanchez promised that the negotiation that will lead will be "transparent" and that the agreements reached in his case with the pro-independence formations will have to be approved not only by the Parliament, but also, probably, "by the Constitutional Court", an irony with which he referred to the more than likely resources of 'unconstitutionality that the formations of the right will interpose against the pacts signed by the Executive.
Regarding his agenda of meetings with the parliamentary groups and which he will inaugurate today with the leader of Sumar, Sánchez pointed out that he will speak with all the groups in the Spanish Parliament with the exception of the far-right Vox formation, which means that he will also plans to meet with Alberto Núñez Feijóo. He did indicate that the schedule of these meetings will be interrupted by the summit of presidents and heads of state of the EU that will be held tomorrow in Granada, one of the most important appointments of the semester of the Spanish presidency. After the summit, he will meet with parliamentary speakers Mertxe Aizpurua (Bildu), Aitor Esteban (PNB), Míriam Nogueras (Junts), Gabriel Rufián (ERC), Néstor Rego (BNG), Cristina Valido (Canarian Coalition), Alberto Catalán ( UPN) and Alberto Núñez Feijóo (PP).
Regarding his meeting with Feijóo, Sánchez did not fail to allude to the PP leader's eagerness to apply for an investiture for which he did not have the necessary support, which has cost the country five weeks in vain , and advanced that he will not ask PP deputies to act as defectors - a figure he described as the greatest perversion of political action -, as the popular leader did, and that he will only demand from the PP to stop the insults and accusations of illegitimacy that he has been repeating tirelessly since 2018, and that he acts with institutional loyalty to facilitate, among other agreements, the renewal of the General Council of the Judiciary, which has been blocked for almost five years.
