The investiture debate of Alberto Núñez Feijóo portrayed them all. To the political leaders, their aspirations, their attitudes, their project and their respect for the institutions. The leader of the PP, appointed by the King to be the first to try to gain the trust of Congress, portrayed himself without nuances against the amnesty and self-determination demanded by the independentists and against an acting president whom he preventively reproached for is going to surrender to “blackmail” that seeks to destroy the legitimacy of the State.
A fugitive socialist leader from the debate was also photographed, who preferred to hide in his seat and let a deputy, Óscar Puente, former mayor of Valladolid, give the candidate’s reply. Sánchez chose not to go up to the podium, thus conveying an image in which contempt for his political adversary was mixed with fear of revealing even the slightest bit of the transfers to which he is willing to remain in La Moncloa.
For the candidate for the investiture, this maneuver was a typical performance of the “comedy club”, designed solely so that Sánchez could avoid being summoned to give explanations about the amnesty.
Feijóo strung together a speech on two levels: on the one hand he attacked Sánchez and his purposes without hesitation; On the other hand, he outlined what would be his political project if he could form a government. This plan, which he detailed, will come to nothing because the leader of the PP will not be able to add the four votes he lacks to carry out the investiture.
However, the possibility of speaking from the tribune of Congress without a time limit allowed him to assert himself before the citizens as the politician who would never accept power if it meant accepting the demands of a fugitive from Justice like Puigdemont. “I won’t do it,” he said, “because I have principles, limits and a word” and because doing so is “neither legally nor ethically acceptable.”
“I will not renounce,” he stressed, “the equality of the Spanish people nor will I go through any hoops to be president of the Government.” And he did so before revealing that it was his party that won the municipal, regional and general elections on 23-J.
Feijóo presented himself as a “free candidate” unlike Sánchez who “has not been and will not be”; as a politician who “puts the general interest before his personal ambition” in front of “those who did not do it and will not do it.”
From there, the candidate assured that his alternative is designed to “recover harmony” and “promote the broad consensus that Spain needs.” “I want to delve into what is common to us and not dig into the frenzy.” And there he included a list of demands from the citizens of the different autonomies: from Murcia to Extremadura.
And he added: “I have the votes within my reach to be president of the Government but honesty and responsibility prevent me from doing so.” At this point Feijóo ignored that, if he gave in to the independence and nationalist requests, Vox would withdraw its support, and given that the PSOE and Sumar would not give it to him in any case, he would not have enough support to be invested.
In the gallery of portraits that was the debate, that of the leader of Vox, Santiago Abascal, was also outlined, supporting the PP without nuances. Everything, he said, to “stop the worst Government in history.”
Yolanda Díaz, leader of Sumar and second vice president of the acting Government, stood behind Sánchez, the man who can allow him to continue occupying a position in the Council of Ministers. She also refused to take the stand to disdain the popular candidate in this way and gave the turn to her parliamentary spokesperson, Marta Lois, who did openly defend the amnesty because, in her opinion, it is the way to “turn the page” and ” reinforce democratic coexistence.
Feijóo attacked her, reminding him that he represents a party – the “Mixed Group plus”, he said – with only 31 deputies and made up of fifteen parties that, in addition, has disappeared from the Galician Parliament where Lois has never had a seat. She also took the opportunity to shoot at Díaz, remembering the trip to Brussels to meet with a fugitive and bringing out that it was Pablo Iglesias, now her “enemy”, who placed her in the Government.
The popular man dealt blows to each and every one of the formations integrated into Sumar. From Más País to Compromís, showing that wherever they have presented themselves, the PP has won.
The general secretary of the PCE and IU deputy, Enrique Santiago, and the leader of the Commons, Aina Vidal, also spoke on behalf of Sumar. Both openly betting on amnesty for those accused of the process because in their opinion this figure fits perfectly in the Constitution. Feijóo thanked them for their sincerity in exposing what, in his opinion, Sánchez does not dare to admit to the public.
ERC spokesperson, Gabriel Rufián, insisted on the idea that Feijóo cannot get votes beyond those of the extreme right. Rufián openly stood at Sánchez’s side, assuming that he would give in, first to the amnesty request and, later, to the independence referendum.
Rufián concluded his intervention by assuring that the amnesty “is a political mechanism to resolve political conflicts and institutional blockages.” And that is why it is now convenient in Spain. “It’s a solution, whether you like it more or less.” And he added: «Does anyone here have a better idea? Because we, he warned, are not going to disappear.
According to Rufián, “the first beneficiary of the amnesty will be the State” because, “if democracy has endured corrupt people and coup plotters, it will also endure this.” The ERC spokesperson, however, did not stop there. For him, the conflict will only have one way out, which is to “vote.” In short, he stated: “An amnesty for what happened on October 1 must lay the foundations for another October 1 to occur, that is, for voting.”
The ERC spokesperson thus warned the PSOE that this is what the “historic opportunity” consists of and stuck out his chest, remembering that if this is now possible it is because the PSOE has a need because it does not have sufficient support.
Feijóo chose to reply to ERC and Junts in a single intervention. The spokesperson for this last formation, Miriam Nogueras, began by accusing the “Spanish elites of squeezing Catalonia.” “For us,” she concluded, “independence is a matter of survival. “We do not want to continue going backwards with Spain.” Nogueras warned that Junts will not accept “a patch” to carry out a Government. And she added, looking towards the PSOE bench, that “today the conditions do not exist to reach a great agreement.”
The candidate for the investiture found in the interventions of both the proof of why Sánchez shied away from the debate: “Because he does not want to respond” to the conditions that both raised. The candidate also reproached them for having “trafficked” with the PSOE to be able to form two parliamentary groups, something that, he said, “they could not win at the polls.”
He urged both of them to “be more useful to real Catalonia” and to renounce “stressing and confronting it.” He also reminded them that “the agreements have to be legal” because, he warned, “if they sign agreements that are not, in the end they will discover that they have been deceived.”