A broad socialist victory in Congress brings Pedro Sanchez closer to re-election in Spain

Barcelona .- Pedro Sanchez’s options for re-election as Prime Minister of Spain They took on Thursday After what PSOE’s candidate for Speaker of the House of Representatives, Francina Armengol, was supported by the independence movement. A sign that the inauguration negotiations are on the right track. But the fact that the meaning of the party vote was not known until the last breath Together for Catalonia, From the former Catalan president Carlos Puigdemont, Heralds a marathon and painful negotiations over the next few weeks. Indeed, Puigdemont himself warned in a tweet after the vote that “the inauguration is exactly where he was the day after the election.”

Faces of satisfaction appeared among the socialists, not only because of the victory of their candidate, but also because: Armengol was elected by an absolute majority -178 votes out of 350- in the first ballot and with a large distance from the popular candidate, Coca Jamara. The spokeswoman for the People’s Party managed to get only 139 votes, those of her party, the Unión del Pueblo Navarro party and the Alliance of the Canary Islands, since then Finally, Vox chose to vote for its candidate.

In addition, the institutional configuration The room was completed with the two vice-presidents of the People’s Party, one for the European Socialist Party and the other for the Left Platform Sumar. The congress table, consisting of nine deputies, is supplemented by two more representatives of the Socialist Workers’ Party and the People’s Party. So, The left bloc will control the legislative agenda.

The wide socialist victory in the vote removes the possibility that the popular leader, Alberto Nunez Figo, Achieving his goal of taking charge of the formation of the government by King Philip VI. Socialist spokesman Pachee Lopez insisted on this idea at a news conference: “[Feijóo] You can’t agree with anyone. Thus, he cannot expose himself to any position.” Over the next few days, Felipe VI will hold a round of contacts with the various political forces and will announce his decision.

The broad socialist victory in the election of the presidency of the conference and the bureau Sanchez makes the arguments to insist that he is the only one with investment options. Over the next few days, Felipe VI will hold a round of contacts with the various political forces and will announce his decision.

With the exception of Coalición Canaria, all peripheral nationalist parties voted in favor of Armengol. While the Galician National Bloc (1 MP), and the Basques from EH Bildu (6) had already announced the direction of their vote days before, the Basque Nationalist Party (5) and the Republican Left of Catalonia (7) did so only minutes before voting. the most complex partner, together, Its leader, Puigdemont, in exile in Brussels, was hermetic, and we had to wait for a recount to find out His seven deputies had expressed their support for Armangol.

The agreement between peripheral nationalism and PSOE contains the commitment of socialists Change the Chamber’s bylaws to allow the use of common official languages – Galicians, Basques and Catalans -, He raised the petition to Brussels so that it could also be done in European institutions, opening an investigation into the spying of Catalan politicians and activists with the Pegasus programme. According to Esquerra spokesperson Gabriel Ruffian, there will also be a fourth implied condition, which is PSOE’s acceptance of Negotiate a pardon For all the political reprisals in Catalonia, which, according to the NGO Omnium Cultural, would amount to about 4,000.

In addition to the political leaders prosecuted for organizing the illegal self-determination referendum in 2017, such as Puigdemont himself, there are hundreds of anonymous activists and even mayors persecuted in court for subsequent protests against the imprisonment of members of the Catalan government. . So far, The SWP argued that the amnesty law would be unconstitutional, but their statements reflect a shift.

For example, the Catalan MP José Zaragoza announced yesterday that despite their refusal to pardon, a legislative package with the same legal implications could be studied. The details of this legislative body are likely to be the hard core of the ongoing negotiations between the PSOE and the two Catalan independence parties, Junts and Esquerra. Once again, the Catalan national conflict is at the center of Spanish politics.

One of the surprises of the day was the lack of agreement between Vox and PP in the vote, Which contrasts with the collaboration between two forces of the Spanish left, PSOE and Sumar. Vox was expected to support Gamarra’s presidential candidacy in exchange for a seat at the table, but in the end, that was not the case.

The fact that Sanchez’s inauguration is now more likely, and the People’s Party unit in Congress, is already starting to fuel rumors about Possible replacement for Figo at the helm of the Conservative Party.

Vox leader, Santiago Abascal, He severely criticized the Plenipotentiary Conference for not helping them obtain a representative on the Council. “We have offered our support to Mr Figo to avoid a government of national destruction… We are somewhat puzzled because it does not seem to prevent the exclusion of Spain’s third political force from Congress to normalize democratic life.Abascal said at a congressional news conference.

The far-right leader did not answer the question whether the agreement announced two weeks ago to support a hypothetical inauguration of Figo was still valid: “We will talk to the People’s Party again to understand what they want to do.”

For its part, the People’s Party, which criticized that the Socialist Workers’ Party had given “certain” weight to independents, He does not give up Feijóo’s right to put himself forward for office He is confident that Vox will continue to support him despite the disagreement.

According to Spanish law, once the king has entrusted the formation of the government to the candidate with the most options, he has an indefinite period to negotiate support for his installation. But once he decides to submit to a vote in case he is not successful, A two-month period will be opened to try again by himself or another applicant. If a sufficient majority has not been forged within two months, Elections are called automatically. After voting on Thursday, Spanish political puzzle It looks less complicated than the night of July 23rd, but a little bit.