Pedro Sánchez and Alberto Núñez Feijóo will meet this Monday at 5:00 p.m. in Congress, within the framework of the round with the parties that the socialist candidate is carrying out after being proposed by the King as a candidate for the investiture. An appointment in which, however, this investiture will not be the leitmotiv of it, since even Sánchez himself has ruled out asking for support from the popular ones.
At the meeting, what the socialist general secretary will do is ask the leader of the PP to agree to renew the General Council of the Judiciary, whose mandate has expired for five years.
This is a courtesy meeting. Protocolary. Sánchez wants to meet with all the groups in Congress, except with Vox – a group that he vetoes – and in that regard he could not leave out the main opposition party. However, the expectations of the meeting are the same as when it took place on the occasion of Feijóo’s investiture: null.
Because Sánchez is not even going to ask the PP to move from its vote against. He is determined not to waste a minute on that. “I consider it out of place knowing the political positions and the political and territorial alliances that the PP and Feijóo are making,” he said in reference to the pacts with Vox. Yes, he will focus on asking, once again, the leader of the PP to address the renewal of the General Council of the Judiciary, whose mandate has expired for five years.
PSOE and PP were about to seal an agreement to renew the governing body of judges in October 2022. But a call between both leaders, while Sánchez was in South Africa, truncated an agreement that was considered absolutely closed. In it the socialist informed the popular of his intention to reform the Penal Code to modify the crimes of sedition and embezzlement. A decision that sought to please the nationalists.
In that meeting, for his part, Feijóo will convey to Sánchez the absolute rejection of the first political party in Spain that governability is conditioned to the demands of the independence movement and “represents the rupture of the equality of all Spaniards.” His message will be that the amnesty “cannot be a bargaining chip for Sánchez to remain in Moncloa. It is neither constitutional nor ethical to undermine the principle of equality among the citizens of our country, nor is there authorization from the polls to treat privileged no one, whether he is an independence politician or not.
Furthermore, the president of the PP, once Sánchez has acknowledged having established negotiations with the independentists, will ask him who and, above all, what the PSOE is negotiating to remain in power despite having lost the elections. Spaniards have the right to know all the details.
The appointment will be in Congress because Sánchez has established that it is the appropriate place, because it is the parliamentary groups that must vote on his investiture. That is, he will sit, for example, with the representatives of Bildu and Junts, with whom he has never done so. In this way, avoid the photo with Carles Puigdemont or Oriol Junqueras. At least for now.
The meeting with Feijóo will open a week that the socialist candidate will close by meeting on Friday with Bildu and Junts, two groups with which he has never sat down. Thus, on Monday he is also scheduled to meet with the top representatives of the UGT unions (12:00 p.m.) and Workers’ Commissions (12:30 p.m.).
Tuesday morning will be the turn for BNG (11:30 a.m.) and PNV (1:00 p.m.). In the afternoon, the meetings will be with representatives of the Third Sector. On Wednesday morning, Sánchez will hold meetings with representatives from the world of culture (9:30 a.m.), with UPN (11:00 a.m.), with the Canarian Coalition, at 12:00 p.m., and at 1:00 p.m. he will meet with ERC. In the afternoon, the shift will be for the CEOE employers’ association (5:00 p.m.).
On Friday the week’s agenda will close with a meeting with representatives of EH Bildu (9:30 a.m.), Junts per Catalunya (11:00 a.m.) and then receive representatives of environmental organizations (12:00 p.m.).
