Despite the fact that during his reign he has already experienced several unprecedented and historical situations, Felipe VI faced, once again, an unexplored trance. A round of consultations with two candidates with the intention of going to the investiture. Both Alberto Núñez Feijóo and Pedro Sánchez went to Zarzuela yesterday with the message of being willing to be candidates for Prime Minister. The King, again in a complex role, strengthened the institutional framework that presides over his reign and chose to propose Alberto Núñez Feijóo as a candidate, who will be the one who must submit to the confidence of the Chamber.
“I have shown my willingness…”, Feijóo told the Monarch. “I have transferred my disposition…”, Sánchez explained to him. The two appeared before the King with a promise of majority, claiming their right, but neither was certain of it. Expectations, while the King needed certainties. In fact, this lack of specification of the support of the candidates is highlighted by the King in the statement he made public after his decision: «In the consultation procedure carried out by His Majesty the King, it has not been verified, to date today, the existence of a sufficient majority for the inauguration” that alters the “custom” of proposing the candidate with the most votes. That is to say, the Monarch was not convinced by Sánchez’s approach that “only a parliamentary majority can be articulated around the PSOE.”
With one more condition. In the round of consultations held by the King, the pro-independence formations of Bildu, ERC and Junts do not participate – the PNV does attend. Therefore, he does not know out loud, first-hand, the position and approach of these parties, even though Sánchez told him that he believes it is possible to articulate a majority around his figure. And that is also stated by the King, who does not know the position of all the parties: “The representatives of the political groups with parliamentary representation who have appeared in the procedure have exposed to His Majesty the King the meaning of their parliamentary support.” Those who have not gone have not exposed him and, therefore, he does not know him.
There were no surprises, despite weeks of uncertainty, pools, and even statements with the background of trying to condition the decision, because both candidates have made public statements in which they were running as the only option to be appointed. Felipe VI was faithful to his trajectory and preserved the institutionality that he has cultivated: the last political leader to leave Zarzuela in a round of consultations, for being the most voted for, does so with the band of candidate for the Presidency of Congress . “Everyone knows that it will be a failed investiture,” was the dart launched by the PSOE leader before the decision was made official.
Sánchez made Feijóo ugly his intention of wanting to go to the investiture because, he said, this “is not an exhibition process.” But neither is the round of consultations an “exhibition” for the King or for the candidates, but a procedure regulated in the Constitution with which an attempt is made to provide normality and gear to political and parliamentary life.
“Throughout these 9 years, I have carried out my responsibilities with a sense of duty and institutional respect,” Felipe VI said last June, on the day of his ninth anniversary on the throne. A maxim that has also wanted to guide a difficult moment like that of this round of contacts, with public pressure included. Because the public messages of the PP were aimed at putting pressure on Feijóo to be elected, while those of the PSOE also exhibited their right to be appointed.
«There are three endorsements in which my candidacy is sufficiently argued. The first is that I am the candidate of the party that won the July 23 elections, the second is that there are four political formations that add up to 172 deputies, to four of the absolute majority, and thirdly because it is fulfilling my duty », exhibited Feijóo.
«The elections and the formation of the congress table have left evidence: there is only one possible majority, a progressive majority led by the PSOE. There is no other alternative than to reissue a government of progress”, was the message that Sánchez conveyed to Felipe VI.
In the most immediate precedents, Felipe VI has exercised his role of arbitrating and on all occasions designated the candidate who had obtained the most seats as the candidate to submit to the investiture, despite the fact that at the time of the round they did not have the guaranteed support for achieve the majority of 176 deputies. This was the case with Mariano Rajoy after the general elections in December 2015 and with Sánchez after the two appointments held in 2019.
It is the justification that was transferred from Casa Real to argue its decision: «The PP has been the political group that has obtained the greatest number of seats in the last elections of July 23. In this sense, it should be noted that, except in the XI Legislature, in all the general elections held since the entry into force of the Constitution, the candidate of the political group that has obtained the greatest number of seats has been the first to be proposed by His Majesty the King as a candidate for the Presidency of the Government. This practice has become a custom over the years.
A certain parallelism could be drawn between the appointment of Feijóo and that of Rajoy in 2016, insofar as both leaders presented, a priori, and at the time of meeting the King, a majority against which made his investiture impossible. In 2016, the votes against Rajoy were 180; To this day, the rejection of Feijóo would reach the sum of 178 deputies. Because although in 2019, after the two elections held, Sánchez did not have the necessary majority of 176 votes tied up either, he did not have an overwhelming sum against him that would make it impossible to be elected.
Only on one occasion did the King get out of this position of proposing as a candidate for the Presidency of the Government the candidate with the most votes in an election. It was in September 2019. The period of two months expired after the failed investiture that Sánchez starred in in July. And after repeating the round of consultations, he found that there was no candidate who “has the necessary support for Congress, where appropriate, to grant him his confidence.” And he did not propose Sánchez, whom he had already designated on June 6, 2019. There was electoral repetition.
