This Tuesday, September 26, Spanish conservative Alberto Nuñez Feijoo will present his candidacy for the post of Prime Minister before Parliament. This attempt, however, seems quite vain, since the right does not seem to have the necessary support, despite its victory in the legislative elections. Counting the extreme right of Vox as his main support, Mr. Feijoo, who came first in the legislative elections of July 23, failed to obtain the four votes separating him from the majority in the Chamber of Deputies since King Felipe VI charged him with forming a government.
To do this, he would have had to convince regionalist parties, kingmakers in a very fragmented Parliament, but they refuse to give him their support because of his alliance with Vox.
Despite this announced failure, the leader of the Popular Party (PP) intends to take advantage of these two days at the podium of Parliament to attack his rival, the outgoing socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, who is at the same time negotiating the support of the Catalan separatists for stay in power.
“If I accepted [the demands of the separatists], I would be Prime Minister next week. But I do not intend to give in to this blackmail […], I will not govern at any price,” assured Mr. Feijóo on Monday in the daily El Mundo.
However, he remains convinced that this investiture vote will be “the first stone” of the formation in a more or less near future of a right-wing government, he had said a few days earlier.
According to Astrid Barrio, professor of political science at the University of Valencia, the conservative is indeed seeking, during this debate in Parliament, to “present himself […] as a very clear alternative to Sanchez” whom he accuses of multiplying concessions to the separatists. In the same vein, the PP is organizing a large gathering of its activists in the center of Madrid at midday on Sunday around Mr. Feijoo.
At the heart of the conservatives’ attacks: the amnesty of the separatists, pursued since the attempted secession of Catalonia in 2017, demanded by the separatists in exchange for their support for the reappointment of Mr. Sanchez.
The amnesty “is unconstitutional,” Mr. Feijoo denounced Thursday on X, formerly Twitter, “it is an unjust and immoral attack against the laws and the separation of powers.” If Pedro Sanchez gives in to this “blackmail”, he will have “sacrificed the equality of Spaniards on the altar” of his continued power, the right-wing leader said.
Concretely, the debate on Mr. Feijoo’s investiture will begin on Tuesday at 10 a.m. GMT and will be followed by the vote the next day. To be invested during this first vote, he must obtain an absolute majority of 176 votes out of 350. During the second vote, 48 hours later, a simple majority is enough, but, barring a twist, he will not obtain it either. more.
A two-month countdown will then be launched, at the end of which new legislative elections will be called, probably for mid-January. Unless Pedro Sanchez manages to be reappointed earlier by Parliament. The socialist thinks he can obtain the votes of the Catalan separatists, who have already given their support in mid-August to the election of his candidate for president of the Chamber of Deputies in exchange for authorization to speak in the regional language in the hemicycle.
But an amnesty – which would notably benefit independence leader Carles Puigdemont, who has been living in Belgium since 2017 to flee prosecution – is a much more perilous exercise.
Rejected by the right, this measure also caused turmoil within the Socialist Party, with former Prime Minister Felipe Gonzalez having notably called for “not giving in to blackmail”.
Sanchez, who in 2021 already pardoned separatists sentenced to prison for the events of 2017, said nothing publicly about such an amnesty but promised that it would be “consistent with the policy of returning to normal” in Catalonia which he has applied since coming to power in 2018.
