The second act of the PP against the possible amnesty for the crimes of the process was not intended as a display of force, like the one that exceeded expectations in Madrid, on September 24, with more than 60,000 attendees, but as a flying goal on the road to the investiture of Pedro Sánchez. Unlike the previous street mobilization, this was a rally.
Specifically, a pre-campaign rally, with harangues of demands and calls to the polls to vote “amnesty yes or amnesty no.” In the Plaza del Ayuntamiento of Toledo – punished by a freezing wind – 1,000 people were expected and about 1,300 have attended.
As there is no date yet for the investiture (it depends on PSOE and Junts reaching an agreement), the popular people have decided to hold an event in the street every Sunday to denounce the bankruptcy of the “equality” of all citizens: Toledo ( today), Malaga (October 29) and Valencia (November 5), for now.
“We are in the streets because we are the majority, the calm, optimistic majority, who believes in Spain,” stressed Alberto Núñez Feijóo. “This is much more than a rally. Here we are summoned by 45 years of democracy that we are not willing to let anyone take away from us. The right to progress in freedom and equal opportunities is inalienable,” the Galician leader emphasized.
In the central part of his speech, Feijóo accused Pedro Sánchez of “disturbing democracy” with his concessions to the independence movement: “They get into an office to agree against the Spanish. They are the ones who have cornered themselves in the offices , the secretive ones and the furtive meetings” to seek “the benefit of a few”, he exclaimed.
“They have completely neglected the country; it is not a functioning Government, but a dysfunctional Government,” he stressed, to contrast it with “the Spain of free and equal” that the PP represents, in his opinion. “History will judge him, the polls will judge him and that will be his final point,” he said about the acting president of the Executive.
Feijóo’s rallying and pre-electoral tone is due to the fact that he believes that there may be a repeat election, but also because he considers that, if there is an investiture, the legislature would be short and diabolical for Sánchez. “Perhaps he can form a Government, but that Government will be born broken. He will assume the presidency as a resigned president, because he will have failed to fulfill his main duty in office, which is the equality of all Spaniards,” he noted.
For the leader of the PP, all transfers to Junts are due to the fact that “Pedro Sánchez only loves himself” and looks after his personal interests rather than the equality of all Spaniards. “He, he and he”, he stressed.
Again without citing Emiliano García-Page (he never does so when he visits his community), Feijóo has disgraced the PSOE barons for not attending the event in the Senate on Thursday. “Their presidents have not gone to the Senate because they have nothing good to say on behalf of their party. That is why they talk a lot and do nothing,” he noted.
“If the PSOE were sure that it had the support of the Spanish people, we would go to elections to vote if we agreed with the amnesty,” he claimed, “but the PSOE has no self-respect left.” “If he had any self-respect left, he would not have to go through the embarrassment of going back on everything he said” about the amnesty nor would he be “silent and servile” before Junts and ERC, he added.
“And it would not have ministers who were equidistant, ambiguous and even condescending to acts of terrorism” in Israel. “And if the PSOE had self-respect it would not shake hands with Bildu,” he insisted. “Someday the PSOE will look back and be ashamed of all this,” he closed the argument.
Finally, Feijóo has accused the Government of “invading the legislative power” and “controlling the Judiciary.” “We want a Spain in which Justice is not at the discretion of those who commit crimes,” he said.
“They close Congress from time to time,” he said, “because they can’t stand that we are the majority group.” Faced with this, he pointed out that “of course we are going to open the Senate”, and has revealed that the proposals of the PP barons in the Upper House, on Thursday, will become an initiative that the popular people will take to the plenary session so that than to vote on amnesty.