Pilar Santos Madrid 07/25/2023 Act. at 22:11 CEST
Alberto Núñez Feijóo I had planned for weeks to go today, Santiago’s Day, to the Galician city to celebrate the feast of the apostle. The PP leader’s plan was to enjoy victory at the polls in his land. However, the victory on Sunday night was clear (136 seats against 122 for the PSOE), but insufficient to get to Moncloa.
After the ceremony in the cathedral of Santiago, Feijóo has responded for the first time to questions from the press after election night and has insisted on trying to negotiate his investiture. The day before, at a meeting of the national board of directors of the PP, announced that he had initiated contacts with the parties he needs to reach an absolute majority that can make him Prime Minister. He assured on Monday that he had contacted Vox (33), PNV (5), Coalición Canaria (1) and Unión del Pueblo Navarro (1) to reach the necessary 176 seats. However, a few hours after that announcement, at ten at night, the PNV officially announced that it does not want to sit down with him to negotiate anything.
The question this morning was clear: And now what are you going to do if you don’t have the support you need? “To say that you do not have support for a conversation with a group [en referencia a la negativa del PNV] it is a hasty conclusion. UPN and the Canary Islands Coalition are in the best disposition. I will speak with the PSOE and Vox”, he replied.
In your opinion, it is “important” that “the fourth economy of the euro”for Spain, not be “subject to those who are not interested in Spain”, alluding to the need for Pedro Sánchez to win the support of ERC, EH Bildu and Junts if he wants to remove himself from the investiture and continue at Moncloa. He has to have “a Government of Spain and not a misgovernment”, he has continued.
“My obligation is to speak with the groups. Sánchez suggested that I speak after the recount of the vote WAX [de los españoles en el exterior, que se conocerá el fin de semana]. I understand that after the CERA vote, in August, we will talk. Spain deserves stability. We are negotiating in Brussels the spending rule and the budget for the year 2024. Times are coming when stability and Europeanism are needed. I think it is a mistake that the independentistas governed in Spain, because they have lost votes and seats. I will do my duty, I will try to talk to the groups,” the Galician politician insisted.
The meeting with the King
What they do not clarify in the leadership of the PP is what Feijóo will do if he arrives at the meeting with the head of state in mid-August, when he makes the round with parliamentary groups. In the Constitution it does not say that the Monarch has to propose it to the most voted list automatically. Article 99 reads: “The King, after consultation with the representatives designated by the political groups with parliamentary representation, and through the President of Congress, will propose a candidate for the Presidency of the Government.”
And there is the precedent of 2016, for example, when Mariano Rajoy was the most voted but did not try to put together a sufficient parliamentary majority to remove the investiture and it was he who declined before the King to be designated a candidate. Felipe VI then asked Sánchez, who told him to go ahead, that he would try. The socialist leader, however, failed and the traumatic stage of the abstention of PSOE deputies arrived so that Rajoy could be sworn in. Otherwise, the elections would have had to be repeated for the third time.
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