The leader of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, sees it possible that the head of the Executive himself, Pedro Sánchez, will travel to Waterloo to negotiate the General State Budgets (PGE) with the former president of the Generalitat Carles Puigdemont, just as he previously sent the former PSOE Organization Secretary, Santos Cerdán, and the former president José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero.
“Mr. Sánchez sent the best he had in each house to secure the alliance with Puigdemont: he sent Mr. Cerdán, he sent Mr. Zapatero, and now only he remains. But who do they think they were going without Sánchez sending them? Maybe, perhaps, Mr. Puigdemont does not want a photo with Mr. Sánchez, but I don’t know that,” he exclaimed in an interview with Europa Press.
The Government announced in June that after the summer it would start contacts to negotiate the public accounts. When asked if he sees a photo of Sánchez and Puigdemont to try to approve the PGE, Feijóo responded that he has “no doubt” that such contact can take place.
“WE STILL THINK THAT AMNESTY DOES NOT FIT IN THE CONSTITUTION”
Regarding whether the PP is concerned that Puigdemont could return and be a candidate if the Constitutional Court rules before the general elections on the appeal against the decision not to apply amnesty, the PP president pointed out that his party is based on and guided by “the defense of the Rule of Law.” “That actions be taken according to the Rule of Law,” he demanded.
That said, the opposition leader assured that the Popular Party still thinks that amnesty “does not fit in the Constitution.” “But we are not the Constitutional Court,” he emphasized.
For Feijóo, amnesty was “the purchase of Pedro Sánchez’s investiture.” “A purchase with a massive electoral fraud because he constantly spoke out against amnesty and a legal fraud because we understand that amnesty does not fit in the Constitution,” he added.
Although he said that the PP will respect and “assume” the rulings of the Supreme Court and the Constitutional Court, “as always,” he warned that it will be the “responsibility” of the magistrates who sign the rulings on the pending appeals of Puigdemont and other ‘procés’ leaders. “There are others who have not wanted to sign, and the Supreme Court has its own competencies,” he stressed.
At this point, he defended a reform of the court of guarantees. “What is clear is that we need a reform of the Constitutional Court both for its members and for its competencies. We have to clarify which are the competencies of the Supreme Court and which are those competencies that the Constitutional Court cannot invade in the field of ordinary jurisdiction,” he stated.
RELATIONS WITH VOX AND NEGOTIATION FRAMEWORK
After the agreements with Vox in Extremadura, Aragón, Castilla y León, and Andalusia, he highlighted that the PP has won the elections in those territories while the PSOE has achieved “the worst result in its history,” while emphasizing that they have done what they said “from the beginning”: “to provide stability.”
In the case of Extremadura and Aragón, he defended the early elections because if the budgets are extended for a second time, elections must be called. In the other two autonomous communities, they went to the polls once “the legislature ended,” he specified.
When asked if, in case he needs Vox after the general elections, he is willing to form a coalition government with the party of Santiago Abascal, he insisted that stability must be sought and emphasized that the PP supports “transparent” government agreements and not a “hooded pact with Bildu.”
Thus, he indicated that these are agreements “in accordance with the Spanish legal system” and added that they previously designed “a negotiation framework” of the PP “with Vox or with any other party.” “And that framework is known. We will protect, of course, the Constitution, we will comply with the legal system, we will defend the State of Autonomies, and we will protect the basic principles that emanate from the legal system of our country,” he emphasized.
SPAIN NEEDS A “STRONG” AND “SOLID” GOVERNMENT
The PP president stressed that Spain’s situation is the “most delicate” in its history, expressly referring to the “invasion” in Ceuta. In his view, to overcome “these existential crises as a State,” a “very solid and very strong” Government is needed that has “the greatest possible democratic legitimacy.”
“And that is a government of the Popular Party. If the Spanish give us the mandate with that overwhelming legitimacy to govern alone, have no doubt. That is my goal,” he stated, adding that Spain’s foreign policy “needs a lot of determination, a lot of diplomacy, and a lot of firmness” and “not headlines or big phrases.”
According to Feijóo, “more than ever, Spain’s critical situation needs a Government with the enormous legitimacy that the Government of Felipe González had, the Government of Aznar in 2000, or the Government of Rajoy in 2011.”
