Vox’s motion of no confidence in Pedro Sanchez is doomed | Next Wednesday, the Spanish Congress will vote on the continuation of the socialist leader at the head of the government

conference Spain Paid tribute on Tuesday to Ramon Valley Inclan. First day of discussion on Vox’s motion of censure to overthrow the government Pedro Sanchez It appears to have been inspired by some work of the illustrious Galician playwright, who with farce and grotesque with ultimate satire reflected the misery of Spanish society at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth centuries.

The Spanish political system gives the groups represented in Parliament the tool of a vote of no confidence, which is a mechanism that allows the majority formations of the opposition to propose an alternative program and candidate for the government, and in the event that they obtain an absolute majority in the parliament. , overthrow the president and appoint a new one.

Although only once in the history of Spanish democracy has this tool led to a change of government, When in 2018 Pedro Sanchez displaced Mariano Rajoythis system is often used as The mechanism of draining the government into office Present an alternative to the public. This is what Felipe González did in 1980, when a motion of no confidence against then-president Adolfo Suárez, though unsuccessful, was a precursor to the landslide victory he would win in the elections two years later.

Since then, the history of Spain has recorded five more moves of censure, and although only one of Sanchez’s against Rajoy has been crowned with success, until Tuesday there was no such egregious situation as the one carried out with the motion made by Fox.

Unlike the mechanisms of other political systems, where the president can be impeached and elections called immediately, In Spain, a motion of censure requires a motion of censure. The goal is that if the proposal flourishes, the new president can terminate the legislature. To do this, it must present a government program in the discussion of the proposal and prove that it has a parliamentary majority to implement it.

None of that was suggested by Vox With a motion of censure whose debate began this Tuesday. The formation of the far right framed its proposal on the sole axis of the expulsion of Sanchez from the Palace of La Moncloa and the call for new elections as soon as possible. Since the socialist president regained power in the 2019 elections, Fox considers him illegitimate for obtaining a parliamentary majority thanks to a mixture of left-wing and separatist parties that allowed his installation. Since the pandemic, he has crafted a disastrous rhetoric in which he guarantees that Spain’s survival as a country is in jeopardy if the socialist president remains in power.

That’s why he claims he fired him for calling the election, and to show that removing Sánchez is a priority that overrides his interests as a party, he chose Ramón Tamames, a respected 89-year-old economist and former Communist Party candidate, as his candidate. Militant, political prisoner during the Franco regime. that at the end of the 1980s, when he was councilor in Madrid, he starred in a throwback act by leaving Izquierda Unida and giving his votes to the right in the censure movement that removed the then socialist mayor Juan Barranco from the city council.

Tamas has been out of the limelight for decades, and this Tuesday he achieved the goal of bringing attention back to him. Those who expected him to deliver an extravagant performance were not disappointed. Not applauding a speech by Santiago Abascal, the leader of the Vox party who proposed him as head of government, he interrupted one of Pedro Sanchez’s speeches to protest because the president came up with a pre-written “20-page bill” to answer matters. He did not say, complained that speeches were too long, refused to respond to interventions from minorities, and justified the suggestion that the coalition government does not respect the division of powers. However, to assert that his ideological journey from communist resistance to Franco to candidacy for the far right was complete, he attacked the Historical Memory Act, predicting disaster for excessive spending and criticizing the increase in the minimum wage recently passed by the Sánchez government.

to Executive Director of the Coalition of PSOE and Unidas Podemos, eroded in recent weeks by the approval of controversial laws promoted by Podemos ministers and the ongoing conflicts between the two powers, the censure movement means a ball of oxygen. In a gesture of political backlash, Sanchez Not only did he take advantage of more than ten hours of discussions to review his government’s achievements, but also She ceded part of the government’s defense to her vice president, Yolanda Diaz, They belong to the political space of Podemos Although he is not part of this party. Diaz took the opportunity to go ahead with the launch of Sumar, the project with which he intends to unite the entire political space on the left of the PSOE before the general elections this year. The vice president spoke for an hour and a half and Tamams only used a minute and a half to respond.

The motion of no confidence has put the People’s Party in an uncomfortable place, in the midst of a process of returning votes that went to its right side towards Vox and which now sees how the far-right party regains the leadership role it lost. . To the dismay of the People’s Party, the proposal allows Sanchez to come out forcefully when a few weeks ago his government was going through its worst moment in the legislature.

This Wednesday the debate will conclude and then the vote will take place. The People’s Party has already announced that it will abstain, so Vox will not add any additional votes to its 52 MPs. So far from the 176 he needs to invest his eccentric candidate for president.