Feijóo gets involved in the motion of censure

MadridSantos Cerdán's imprisonment has led Alberto Núñez Feijóo to make an attempt to make a move that was quickly thwarted. After having categorically ruled out for weeks presenting a motion of censure despite pressure from Vox, the PP leader announced this Tuesday morning in a message to X that he had asked Miguel Tellado, the PP spokesperson in Congress, to explore the possibility of obtaining the four votes he is missing among Pedro's parliamentary allies. A cordon sanitaire is being applied. "Let them say if their support for the PSOE remains intact," Feijóo demanded. The movement, framed within the strategy deployed by the PP to wear down not only the Socialists but also the rest of the plurinational majority by accusing them of complicity in corruption, has backfired. Isabel Díaz Ayuso has refuted him, Junts has put him on the ropes with an uncomfortable proposal for him – to meet with Carles Puigdemont in Waterloo – and widened the gap with the PNV.

In just a few hours, Feijóo realized that he remains tied hand and foot because he can only count on the poisoned support of the far right. Although Sánchez is experiencing his worst moment of the legislature due to the sudden fall of the man who was recently his right-hand man, the PP is currently unable to hasten his demise. One of the reasons is the cost involved in attracting the pro-independence vote, which generates internal tensions, as seen in the Madrid prime minister's reaction to the announcement of a rapprochement with Junts or the PNV. Ayuso warned him in statements to the media that presenting a motion of no confidence could end up giving Sánchez wings. "We cannot take false steps to strengthen him even further," she said, convinced that none of the PSOE's partners are willing to "break up the fight."

An argument that Feijóo had recently used to dismiss her. Given the contradiction between what was proposed this Tuesday and what was actually said, PP sources specified that the party "will not call the parliamentary groups to ask, but to listen." Tellado insisted at a press conference in the lower house when Feijóo's intentions had already met with a majority vote.

Widespread rejection

The parties questioned by Tellado have been closing in one after another on the idea of joining a Popular Party initiative to oust Sánchez, starting with ERC. "Tellado has just written to us. The spokesperson [Gabriel Rufián] has told him that there is really little to discuss [...]. If this escalates, it should be the people who decide the future of the country, and not a party that has had, has, and will continue to have cases of corruption," said Republican sources, who also emphasized that they will not participate in not participating.

Podemos has expressed similar opinions, calling the PP a "rotten party" and accusing it of being the "most corrupt in Europe," in the words of Podemos leader Ione Belarra. And the BNG has also made it clear that it will not support a hypothetical motion of censure: "We will not support, under any circumstances, a motion of censure promoted by the far right and the ultra right," said the Galician party.

The PNV, for its part, reacted by expressing displeasure at the way Tellado appeared before the media to "launch attacks and accusations" before calling the spokesperson for the Basque nationalists, Maribel Vaquero, to whom he had only sent a message "a few minutes before" the press conference. "It's clear that this move [...] only responds to a marketing strategy and makes it clear that the PP is not seeking a space for understanding," party sources complained.

Tellado rules out a meeting in Waterloo

Junts has reacted differently, responding to the PP by counterattacking with a challenge: if Feijóo wants to address the future of the legislature, he must meet with former president Carles Puigdemont in exile. Sources within the party argued that the PP "already know the mechanisms" for holding cross-party talks, "they know who to do it with, the president and the secretary general" of the party, and they also know "the place": "Outside the country for well-known reasons," they added. Specifically, in Belgium, either in Brussels or Waterloo, they specified.

Junts has made it clear that, if necessary, they will be "no less demanding" of the PP than of the PSOE when it comes to meeting, but the PP has already ruled out this scenario. In his press conference, Tellado closed the door to a meeting with the former president in Belgium. "The one who went to meet with Puigdemont is Zapatero. We are not going to do what we have criticized others for doing; we are not like the PSOE. No one will find us there," he said. However, he did not respond to the question of whether he would be willing to hold a video call meeting with the leader of Junts.

And here he has once again received criticism from Ayuso, who has rejected the idea of reaching an agreement with the Junts members, since, in her opinion, it would give "a romantic role to the independence movement." A debate, that of pacts with Junts, which generates tension between the two souls of the PP, as has been evident ahead of this weekend's party congress with the Catalan PP leader, Alejandro Fernández,'s proposal to veto pacts with political parties in the political report. who seek to "subvert the constitutional order"Vox also ruled out participating in any operation with Junts: "If Vox didn't exist, Mr. Feijóo would already be on his way to Waterloo," said the far-right party.

Vox complaint against Sánchez

Vox not only questioned Feijóo's intentions but, as usual, raised the stakes and on the same day announced a complaint in the Supreme Court against Sánchez for revealing secrets, obstructing justice and concealing the truth; after former minister José Luis Ábalos assuredOk Diary Sánchez explained to him in Moncloa in September 2023 that the Central Operational Unit of the Civil Guard was investigating his former advisor Koldo García.