• Investiture Yolanda Díaz now says she is "far from an agreement" with Sánchez and refuses to clarify her vote in the investiture
  • Politics At least five CCAA of the PP will go to the TC if Sánchez approves the amnesty

Felipe VI closes this Tuesday the second round of contacts with the representatives of the parliamentary formations with the purpose of designating a new candidate for the investiture. The spotlight is on the socialist leader, Pedro Sánchez, who aspires to head a new government in coalition with Sumar for the next four years. However, if he, as everything indicates, is the chosen one, the King will have chosen without having the guarantee that, this time, the Chamber will grant its confidence.

Pedro Sánchez will be the penultimate visitor to La Zarzuela. After him will attend the appointment with the Monarch the leader of the most voted party, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, who failed last Friday in his attempt to become the new president of the Government.

At the end of the round, Felipe VI will have gathered the opinion and voting purpose of seven parliamentary formations. Four others – ERC, Junts, Bildu and BNG – have disdained, as is their custom, dialogue with a head of state they do not recognize.

Precisely the vote of two of these parties – ERC and Junts – is essential for the eventual candidacy of the socialist to prosper and neither of them, for the moment, has secured a yes for which they put expensive conditions.

Unlike both, the abertzale formation has anticipated its bet in favor of Pedro Sánchez trusting in the formation of a "progressive" Executive that gives course to their demands and is a retaining wall against "fascism" and the "extreme right" of PP and Vox.

Felipe VI greets Santiago Abascal (Vox).

With these wickers, the socialist candidate can present himself today before the Monarch guaranteeing him to have 158 votes, the 121 of his parliamentary group, the 31 of Sumar and six of EHBildu. This figure is far from the bar of 176 seats that mark the absolute majority and the 172 that Feijóo achieved.

In this new time, after the failure of the popular, there are many who lend themselves to play the cluelessness to raise their price by asserting themselves. Thus, the leader of Sumar, Yolanda Díaz, said after her meeting with the monarch that it is still "far" from reaching an agreement with the Socialists on the future formation of a government. Díaz did not give a clear answer when asked about the meaning of his vote in the investiture process but, despite the unknown he tried to sow, no one doubts that his parliamentary group will give a yes to Sánchez's aspiration.

The remaining 20 supports that allowed the socialist leader to elevate the former president of the Balearic Islands, Francina Armengol, to the first chair of Congress, are still in limbo, pending that their pressures on the PSOE bear fruit. These are the presumable, but not confirmed yeses, of the two Catalan secessionist formations and the Basque and Galician nationalists.

Felipe VI, with Aitor Esteban (PNV)

The PNV, a force that has five deputies in Congress, did participate yesterday in the round convened by Felipe VI but its spokesman, Aitor Esteban, chose not to reveal the meaning of his vote. It is taken for granted that the Basque nationalists, who voted last Friday against Feijóo, will support Sánchez, although until the last minute they prefer, like Yolanda Díaz, to give wings to the unknown. The PNV has historically only supported three investitures although once the respective governments were formed it has supported one or the other, regardless of their ideology, always according to their party interests.

This Monday, the lehendakari Íñigo Urkullu reminded Sánchez from the microphones of Cadena Ser that if he is finally invested he will undertake a mandate in which he will need "all the votes all the time", which is why, in his opinion, it is "absolutely necessary to lay the foundations of a clear, verifiable, enforceable and committed political agreement" on his part.

Urkullu, in addition, in an attempt to redirect the discomfort left in his party by the harsh words of Feijóo in the investiture debate, assured that he will maintain a "good relationship" institutional with the leader of the PP. The popular picked up the glove of these words and through its general coordinator, Elías Bendodo, emphasized "the good relationship and personal harmony between Feijóo and Urkullu" and took for granted that "relations with the PNV will continue to be cordial."

Felipe VI receives Cristina Valido García (Canary Coalition).

The leader of Vox, Santiago Abascal, confirmed for his part to Felipe VI what was already known: his "resounding no" to Sánchez "in all circumstances". For Abascal there is no doubt that the coup d'état that was perpetrated from Catalonia in 2017 "begins to prepare now from the palace of La Moncloa". He considers unacceptable a government that is based "on the coup plotters and the enemies of coexistence."

In his subsequent meeting with the press, he took the opportunity to call on citizens "to mobilize", something that his party intends to encourage permanently. He also said he was willing "to fight in the courts, in the street and in the institutions with all the consequences" against the foreseeable amnesty law and the hypothetical recognition of the right to self-determination.

UPN, with a seat in the House, has also conveyed to the King its refusal to endorse Sánchez. Javier Esparza, its leader, explained to Felipe VI the resounding refusal of his party to support an investiture that entails the "legitimization" of the fugitive Puigdemont and the convicted, and later pardoned, Junqueras.

The King receives Javier Esparza (UPN).

For the Navarrese politician, Sánchez's proposal includes the names of two people whose ultimate claim is the dismemberment of the State in two phases: first, with the approval of an amnesty that erases the crimes committed during the procés and, later, with the authorization to hold a binding independence referendum in Catalonia.

Likewise, Coalición Canaria is inclined to the no, given that no one from the PSOE has contacted them to negotiate their support or explain Sánchez's plans. Its deputy, Cristina Valido, suggested that the socialist silence may mean that there is already a pact with the independence movement and has all its votes.

  • Politics
  • Investiture of the President
  • Pedro Sanchez
  • PSOE
  • UPN
  • Add
  • To:
  • Yolanda Diaz
  • Santiago Abascal Conde
  • Canary Coalition
  • Bildu
  • Philip VI