Pedro Sánchez gave the starting signal to a long primary campaign on Wednesday, in a parliamentary debate with a clear electoral flavour. The strategy of placing ministers at the head of the regional candidates does not give the desired result for the Prime Minister … He decided to directly undertake the task of opposing the Popular Party governments. This task, usually carried out from the Cabinet table, was exported on Wednesday to Congress, where he put forward an amendment to the administration of the popular presidents, whom he accused, without any concealment, of attacking the “soul” of Spain: the welfare state.
The head of the executive has been summoned to court because of the corruption surrounding his government, his party and his family environment, but also because of the uncertain course of the legislature now that, with Gaunt’s door closed, he has lost the parliamentary majority with which he was sworn in as president. As required by law, he also had to provide clarifications on Spain’s position at the last European Council, but at his request he added a final section: “The situation of public services in Spain.” It’s quite a euphemism for a section that could have been titled: “Criticism of Popular Party Governments.”
The President quickly addressed each topic of his appearance one by one, as if he were completing an action. The European Council was proud to take the housing debate to the rest of the continent, and to demand, in the face of the United States, the possibility of betting on environmental transformation and maintaining economic growth. In passing, he mentioned Palestine and briefly announced social and economic aid worth 46 million euros that he would approve next week. What a few months ago was a big wild card to cover up the crisis unleashed in his party by the arrest of Santos Cerdán, on Wednesday was just a footnote in his speech.
Regarding corruption, without any hint of self-criticism, he barely spoke of the “alleged bribery and embezzlement case” that only affects the two former organization secretaries, Cerdán and José Luis Albalos, in the face of “more than thirty corruption cases opened by the People’s Party.” That was the first clue to where the rest of his speech was going: a whole series of reproaches against the PP in general and Alberto Núñez Viejo and Isabel Díaz Ayuso in particular, as if he were in the Madrid Assembly and the regional president was going to give him an answer. From the State Attorney General, his brother and his wife, not a single word.
Just some crises
The script, as ABC announced Wednesday on its website, was previously prepared by Moncloa. But the cards were so distinguished that Figo did not spare a quip as soon as he took to the speakers’ podium: “Ladies and gentlemen, the opposition leader of the Popular Party has finished, now it is my turn.” But there was Sánchez, this time without the glasses he had so skillfully donned two weeks ago in the Senate to change the public conversation, ready to turn his appearance, destined to control the government, into a rally against the opposition. The stench of election permeated the session during the seven hours it lasted, and was spoiled not only by Gonts, but even by the executive’s convinced partners like the Philippine National Party.
Sanchez called on Miriam Nogueras to return to the path of agreement so as not to fall into the arms of the “destructive opposition.” That he cannot pass budgets or new laws? Little or nothing seemed to matter to him. The goal on Wednesday was to weaken the PP over the breast cancer screening crisis in Andalusia, the privatization of health care in the Community of Madrid, the damage done to the Valencian Community, the fires in Castile and León… The public service that strangely did not concern her was the railways, nor the chaos on the AVE, which relied on his minister Oscar Puente, nor the events that occurred on the Cercanias trains in Catalonia, where El Salvador’s socialist El Salvador was ruling.
Sánchez began by criticizing the reasons for the PP’s past corruption – the classic phrase “and you more” – and the response to the financial crisis introduced by Mariano Rajoy’s government, and went on to attack what he called another, though legal, “immoral” form of “corruption”: the privatization of public services in exchange for “favors for friends.” In a left-wing mood, he accused the PP of passing legislation in favor of “the rich” and particularly attacked Ayuso’s health policy, based on agreements with private companies: “I have turned my land into a casino in which Quiron always wins and the citizens always lose.”
The president claimed that his government, since 2018, had transferred 300,000 million euros more to the autonomous regions than Rajoy gave them in the same period. Money that, according to him, had no impact on social policies to improve citizen well-being. “At this moment, there are 848,787 Andalusians waiting for diagnosis and 200,000 waiting for surgery, of which 43,000 have been waiting for more than a year,” Sánchez said, passing hot potatoes to Juanma Moreno. Naturally, Carlos Mazzone and his management of Aldana, for which he resigned, added to the list of grievances aired by the socialist.
He asked Figo to explain to him what he had spoken to and when and if he recommended not declaring a national emergency. Santiago Abascal, in an unusual appeal, demanded not to support the right and to allow the people of Valencia to go to the elections. The same thing he denies to the Spanish.
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