The intense national politics traveled to the La Toja Forum and the PSOE-PP tension impacted the closure of this space for debate that wants to remain on the sidelines of the battle without fainting that is the Spanish public conversation. Sharing the platform, not at the same time but successively, were Alberto Núñez Feijóo, leader of the opposition, and Emiliano García-Page, the socialist president most critical of Pedro Sánchez. Feijóo landed in La Toja fresh from an investiture debate in which he did not obtain the votes to be president of the Government. The leader of the PP affirmed that he had “fun” in the debate, was satisfied with the result despite the defeat, and insisted before the Forum audience on the arguments he used in the Congress rostrum for a total censure against the policy. and the figure of Sánchez himself.
“What has changed is not the independence movement, what has changed is the leadership of the PSOE, what has changed is that the PSOE has lost the elections and reacts by assuming the theses of the independence parties.” Adopting an amnesty law, he said, “is not coexistence, it is convenience, it is not opportunity, it is opportunism.” Feijóo accused Sánchez of “hyperpersonalistic leadership.”
In his opinion, Sánchez has a strategy that consists of launching the lure of an unacceptable referendum to turn the amnesty into a reasonable solution. “Self-determination is bait for amnesty.” Feijóo reiterated that Sánchez does not have an electoral mandate for an amnesty law, since he presented a program contrary to this grace measure.
The leader of the PP received an unexpected gift in La Toja. The company of Emiliano García-Page, the socialist regional president most critical of Pedro Sánchez. The clarity with which Page expressed himself was music to Feijóo’s ears. The socialist leader asked Sánchez for explanations about the negotiations with the Catalan independentists for an amnesty law in exchange for the investiture. “I say what Illa said on July 24, neither amnesty nor self-determination.”
Page warned that the PSOE “has to make clear what the limits are” of the investiture negotiation, with all its consequences. In his opinion, it would be a self-amnesty granted by the Junts and ERC deputies to their party colleagues prosecuted for 1-O. Page pointed out that he knows Pedro Sánchez well and “he is a person who resists being put in a straitjacket” to govern and a possible amnesty law that would later be annulled by the Constitutional Court would have “immeasurable” effects.
Feijóo agreed with Page that there is no “plurinational” Spain, but rather a “pluriemotional” Spain. But he disagreed that Sánchez was going to establish any limit to granting the amnesty. The president of the PP considers that the most important thing about his frustrated investiture debate is that Spain knows that there is an alternative government to that of Pedro Sánchez subject to “independence blackmail.”
Three regional presidents shared space at the La Toja Forum, Emiliano García-Page, Alfonso Rueda and Fernando Clavijo, who spoke about the health of the Autonomous State. The three, from different parties, shared theses on the need to preserve equality among Spaniards. An issue that is at the center of the debate due to the prospect of an investiture agreement for Pedro Sánchez. Page rejected the claim of a referendum in Catalonia as an insult to the rest of the autonomies. “Some want to have the right to vote only for themselves, on the problems of the Spanish people we all have to vote. When someone wants to decide what they want to be on their own, they are already independent.” In another context, perhaps Page would have stayed to listen to Feijóo. And even to applaud him in a debate forum. In the current situation, he did not find it convenient.