Feijóo calls for a demonstration against Sánchez but avoids a vote of no confidence.
The PP leader is pressuring the Socialist Party's parliamentary allies to help him oust him, while Vox is urging him to be more forceful.
MadridAlberto Núñez Feijóo has revived the scarecrow of the motion of censure against Pedro Sánchez without taking the step of presenting it. As he has done at other times during the legislature, the PP leader has publicly appealed to the PSOE's parliamentary partners to help him secure the majority he lacks in Congress for the initiative to prosper. The latest serial about alleged socialist corruption, with Leire Díez's audio recordings about the UCO, has been the argument used this time to pressure the allies of the Spanish government, which he warned would be "complicit" if they did not act against the head of the executive. "Seven years ago, Mr. Sánchez's current partners said they supported a motion of censure to combat corruption. If they were consistent, they should do the same now without a doubt," Feijóo said in an urgent statement called this Thursday due to the latest information about the alleged plot by
Aware that his appeal to Junts or the PNV has no chance of success (and even more so after the PP's action to block the official status of Catalan, Galician, and Basque in the European Union), Feijóo has announced a mobilization in the streets. Just as the Popular Party (PP) did during the amnesty process, when they couldn't stop it in the institutions, Feijóo has called a protest demanding Sánchez's resignation on Sunday, June 8, at 11 a.m. in Madrid's Plaza de España. "This is about one thing [...], democracy or the mafia. The gravity of the known events transcends any ideology," he asserted, encouraging a protest that goes beyond its acronyms. However, Vox has already distanced itself and criticized the fact that this is not the time to call "party rallies" but rather to take action with a vote of no confidence. The far-right party's secretary general, Ignacio Garriga, has demanded that Feijóo "stop defrauding" the Spanish people and cut all ties with the PSOE, both at home and in Europe. Likewise, leaders and deputies of the far-right party, such as its leader, Santiago Abascal, gathered this Thursday night for a rally next to the Moncloa Palace against these alleged cases of "corruption" by the PSOE. Under the slogan "Sánchez in prison," only 350 people were mobilized, according to the Spanish government delegation.
On the other hand, the Spanish government asserts that the alleged corruption scheme denounced by the PP based on the published audio recordings "does not exist." Thus, it believes that, given a nonexistent scheme, the state executive will not fall. Another element highlighted by the state government is that its investiture partners would not support a hypothetical motion of censure presented by Feijóo.
"It's not up to me"
Feijóo anticipated Vox's criticism and, in his intervention without questions, justified the motion of censure as "not dependent on his will." "I have it all; it depends on those who have supported him in parliament until now. If they want to put an end to this, the PP remains at their disposal," he stated. With this call, the Popular Party (PP) is taking another step in trying to unbalance Sánchez and bolster the narrative that the "degradation" of his executive has reached an unsustainable point. "They lied, they allegedly committed crimes, and to cover it all up, they extorted. Enough must be said," he insisted, while simultaneously avoiding controversial issues for the PP, such as The prosecution of Isabel Díaz Ayuso's boyfriend for tax fraud this Thursday or the situation of Carlos Mazón once the Valencian budget with Vox was approved.
Díaz calls for "forcefulness" in the PSOE
The PP, on the other hand, is trying to splash Sumar and the rest of the plurinational majority with the revelations published this week in The Confidential. During Wednesday's control session, the Popular Party (PP) accused Yolanda Díaz of being a "necessary collaborator" in the Socialists' "moral decline." The second vice president maintained a low profile, seeking to avoid playing the PP's game, but distanced herself from the Socialists on Thursday, demanding "maximum forcefulness" in the face of the "extremely serious" events reflected in the audio recordings. Sources from the minority coalition admit that all this "noise" also harms them and refuse to be drawn into suspicions of corruption. However, the Socialists maintain that no "infamous" campaign against the progressive government will succeed. The Minister of Digital Transformation, Óscar López, counterattacked Feijóo, accusing him of "covering up" for the Madrid president's partner and of "whitewashing" Vox. The PSOE has also joined the battle on social media, where it pointed out that in the dilemma posed by the PP between the mafia and democracy, the Popular Party has taken the lead: "You chose the mafia, I suppose."
On the other hand, the secretary general of Junts, Jordi Turull, has emphasized in a post on X that Feijóo "will be very much in the joke" because he wants his support "to go even further against the Catalan language as they have acknowledged they have done these days." "This is not touching either quarters or hours," he emphasized. In parallel, the spokesperson for ERC in Congress, Gabriel Rufián, has positioned himself on the scenario of a possible motion of censure, pointing out on the same social network the contradiction of the leader of the PP asking for support for a possible initiative to overthrow Sánchez "from parties that his main governing partner would outlaw." He also repeated that Junts would not be "penalized" by a motion with PP and Vox for an alleged "media control" in Catalonia.
