The Popular Party is going to abstain in the extension of the state of alarm that is voted today in the Congress of Deputies. This was announced by Pablo Casado in the Congress of Deputies, after harsh criticism of Pedro Sánchez for his "threats", for his "errors on facemasks and tests" and for not "reactivating the economy urgently". "We cannot support his state of alarm," but we can vote blank, because Sánchez has been favorable to extending the ERTE. And only if "this is the last alarm state".

Married had not even announced it to his own deputies when he had gone up to the rostrum, who were waiting for the speech of the head of the opposition to know what button they should press this afternoon. Among many of them there is a bittersweet feeling, since they believe that the strategy of stretching the rope to the maximum has relegated them to a secondary role.

In any case, the PP vote was no longer essential from the moment that citizens and PNV decided to support the Government, giving it de facto an absolute majority in today's vote. But Casado has been in favor of supporting legal modifications for the later stage of alarm. "We are a state party that keeps its word," he said.

"He says there is no plan B. I doubt that you ever had a plan A," Casado said. At that point, he has criticized the government appealing to the adage of "either us or chaos". "And you ask me? Chaos is you", concluded Casado, for whom Sánchez is installed "in the absolutism" of "after me, the flood". Or in the "caesarism" of "the abusive exceptionality".

The opposition leader has assured that, under the "disguise of a false moderate", the president hides "a hidden and" opaque "state of exception. And with "threats" to the opposition if he did not support the extension of the state of alarm and "taking hostages" millions of Spaniards who receive exceptional aid such as those of the ERTEs.

"We are fed up with television coaching sessions. We want certainties," added the PP president. With the blank vote, Casado leans towards the position of the party barons, who had asked him to abstain in exchange for this being the last extension of the state of alarm and during these 15 days the ground is prepared to modify the laws that are necessary for the selective confinement of the population in the most affected areas, once the state of alarm has been lifted.

This was requested by the regional presidents Alberto Núñez Feijóo (Galicia), Isabel Díaz Ayuso (Madrid), Juanma Moreno (Andalucía), Alfonso Fernández Mañueco (Castilla y León) and Fernando López Miras (Murcia). All of the PP.

The debate has been very intense in the national leadership of the party about whether they should vote against or abstain. Not in vain, the militancy bet mainly on the "no", according to the poll that Genoa made among its cadres.

But in the end the pragmatic vision has been imposed that, although the extension of the state of alarm is not supported in its current terms, the PP must give the Government some time to prepare for the next phase, in which there would not be so many restrictions on movement.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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  • PP
  • Congress of Deputies
  • Pedro Sánchez
  • Pablo Casado
  • Madrid
  • Murcia
  • PNV
  • Alberto Núñez Feijoo
  • Isabel Díaz Ayuso
  • Galicia
  • Fernando López Miras
  • Castilla y León
  • Andalusia
  • Alfonso Fernández Mañueco
  • Politics
  • CIS survey

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