Yesterday Pedro Sánchez and Alberto Núñez Feijóo started a tactical war in search of a tie breaker between the left and right blocs after the 23-J with the hypothetical electoral repeat as background noise.
Conditioned by the very high cost that would entail bearing the responsibility of having to go back to the polls - the same one that electrocuted Albert Rivera and fatally wounded Ciutadans in 2019 -, the acting president of the central government and the leader of the Party Popular set their pace well by means of a more leisurely epistolary conversation than the verbal immediacy that governs the new times.
Feijóo took the first step in the conversation at 3:00 p.m. In his letter he demanded from Sánchez the holding of a meeting that would facilitate his investiture, to stage a negotiation process that could clarify the governance equation in full Spanish presidency of the European Union.
The popular leader not only wanted to avoid the formal request to the King to lead a round of negotiations that, in view of the results, would show his lack of support, but he wants to force the PSOE to make official its refusal to negotiate with the PP for to be able to award him the responsibility of a hypothetical electoral repeat as soon as possible.
Brandishing the argument that "we cannot afford a deadlock", Feijóo requested the meeting with the "purpose of establishing a responsible dialogue for the benefit of the political and institutional stability of Spain" in the face of the "complexity" of the results electoral And, at the same time, it was presented as a firewall against "eventual negative combinations that polarize society, seriously damage territorial cohesion and bring our constitutional system to the limit".
All this bearing in mind that, "throughout our democratic history, it has always been recognized that the winning political force in general elections is the one that must govern".
With this letter the popular president sought to take the initiative at the beginning of the week, after having been strengthened by the extra seat obtained on Friday after the count of the external vote and which further strengthens a deadlock scenario with a tie to 171 deputies between the blocs of the left and the right.
Pedro Sánchez's response came shortly after 7:30 p.m. The acting president of the central government dismissed the approach of his adversary, to whom he replied that he will not meet with him until the King designates a candidate for the investiture. A circumstance that will not happen before August 17, the date on which Congress and the Senate will be constituted.
In a text filled with reminders of the contradictions of the PP, Sánchez began by thanking the opportunity offered by the leader of the opposition to "resume the communication interrupted abruptly and unilaterally with the breakdown of the pre-agreement for the renewal of the Council General of the Judiciary which has been pending for more than four years".
And in response to the request to govern the list with the most votes, the president of the central government resorted to article 99 of the Constitution to remember that the democratic system "has clear rules for configuring the central government that to the principles of parliamentary democracy, which sets in the scope of the Congress of Deputies the space in which the majorities must be built to allow the investiture of the candidate who obtains the necessary support".
The list of warnings from Sánchez to Feijóo did not end at this point. After recalling that the PP has made use of this "basic principle every time it has allowed it to obtain the presidency of regional governments and mayors despite not being the force with the most votes, nor the one with the most seats", he reproached him the recent agreements signed with Vox after the local elections of May 28.
"Governments that are adopting measures that involve disturbing setbacks in matters as important as social dialogue, equality, diversity or the environment", specified Sánchez, and now it's their turn to move the table again to those in Génova, 13.
