Pedro Sánchez has not imposed any brakes. And Alberto Núñez Feijóo, neither. The President of the Government and the leader of the opposition have faced each other harshly in the Senate, reproaching each other for present and past mistakes, their own and those of others. The debate has been at times aggressive, insulting and harsh. Very populist and demagogue. The leader of the PP has offered the head of the Executive three pacts -reform of the law of only yes is yes, policy of aid to Ukraine and Spanish presidency of the EU- and all have been discarded by the president who has chosen to put himself at the defensive using sarcasm, assimilating the PP with Vox and rejecting all the measures proposed by the popular in their institutional regeneration plan.

In his first extensive appearance of the year in the Senate, the Prime Minister has targeted the Popular Party from the beginning, blaming it for the country’s biggest problems. “Prophets of disaster and apocalypse” is how he has described the opposition forces, while he has reserved for himself the role of savior of the interests of citizens at the cost of “leaving his skin” in the effort. He has assured that Spain “has never had as much foreign influence” as with him and has abounded in comparisons between the policy it has followed to try to overcome the current crisis and the one launched by the Rajoy Executive to face the financial crisis that began in 2009.

The opposition leader, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, has replied by drawing a very different panorama of current Spain and the management of the Executive in the economic, political and social spheres. Despite this, the popular leader has offered Sánchez his votes in Congress to immediately modify the law of only yes is yes, activate an income pact or face “as a team” the semester of the Spanish presidency of the European Union. None of these three offers have been met by the president who, moreover, has rejected the plan of 60 measures for institutional regeneration that Feijóo proposed two weeks ago, with just two words: “Pure talk.”

Feijóo has elaborated on the pernicious effects of the law of only yes is yes and, for the first time, Sánchez has personally assured that said derivatives “are going to be corrected”. The president has not explained how because the discrepancies regarding the most appropriate formula to rectify remain standing within the Council of Ministers.

The president has threaded the list of all the measures agreed by the Government to try to alleviate the effect of inflation caused by the war in Ukraine. “We have mobilized a total of 45,000 million euros to protect the social majority,” he said, “while we approved essential reforms for the country.” Despite this triumphant start, Sánchez has denied being “self-indulgent.”

Lucky for the bull, the President of the Government has embarked on comparing his recipe to face the crisis and the one that was launched to face the financial crisis that began in 2009. Sánchez has also not hesitated to blame the current situation to big companies. The president charged against them and against the main opposition party, attributing to them an attempt to “impoverish the majority and weaken the State.”

“The right aspires to have the monopoly of the word Spain,” he said. “We too”, he has insisted before drawing what he claims to be prettier, fairer, more prosperous. “We have a plan for it, to achieve it,” he has stated without giving further details.

Feijóo has gone up to the rostrum to make the President of the Government ugly with his “populism” and his tendency to blame everything on others. He has painted a very different reality ironically with the “mythical story” that the President of the Government makes of himself, of his international relevance and of his management. The leader of the PP has abounded in the fact that Spain is the EU country that has not yet recovered pre-pandemic economic growth and the one with the worst unemployment rates; he has also referred to the “inexplicable” foreign policy in relation to Morocco and so on, and so on.

Feijóo has replied to Sánchez by proposing to face the correction of the law of only if it is yes, which is, he said, “the result of his insensitivity and irrelevance as president.” The leader of the PP has made use of the statements of the former first vice president Carmen Calvo who has publicly stated that she and the former Minister of Justice, Juan Carlos Campo, already warned in the Council of Ministers that the norm prepared by the Ministry of Equality would have serious effects.

The popular leader has sunk his teeth into this issue, accusing Sánchez of being the first president to have taken “a step back” in the fight for feminism. He has accused him of “not backing down out of decency, but out of fear of the polls.” For Feijóo, all this is not typical of a responsible president. Despite this, he has once again offered Sánchez his 89 votes in Congress to carry out the rectification of the law.

He then reminded Sánchez that “insulting” businessmen does not solve problems. He has opted not only to raise the SMI but also to reach an income agreement that benefits all wage earners. Feijóo has also offered to start negotiating a State pact to face the policy that must be carried out to help Ukraine, to face jihadist terrorism and to assume the Spanish presidency of the European Union “as a team”.

Pedro Sánchez has responded to the opposition leader by becoming defensive and making use of irony and sarcasm. Thus he has assured “how good” a PP government would have been in which Rodrigo Rato would sit instead of Nadia Calviño or Eduardo Zaplana would sit in Yolanda Díaz’s place. Feijóo has refused to enter into this type of “game” by putting alternative names of socialists on the table. “Everyone who pays what he owes”, he has affirmed himself.

The debate has been harsh and aggressive. Insulting. Feijóo has assured that he has not entered politics to lie, muddy and insult, but to serve, unite and generate well-being. The leader of the PP has closed his last intervention by urging the president to ensure that “whoever wins the elections will be able to govern.” “Or not?”, He has settled.

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