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The Debate on the state of the nation, The most important parliamentary act of control of the Government has not been held for seven years. The last one was in June 2015, when the chief executive was Mariano Rajoy. Pedro Sanchez is regarding to celebrate four years in La Moncloa and so far he has not convened it even once, justifying it either by holding elections or by the successive alarm states during the pandemic.
The government spokesperson, Elizabeth Rodriguezassured in December that the debate would be held in the first months of the year and the Minister of the Presidency, Felix Bolanos, insisted just a month ago that it would be before July. To this day, there is no date, not even approximate, marked on the horizon. The calendar offers the possibility of the month of May and the first half of June. From that moment on, the agenda is complicated by the preparations for the Summit of the OTAN to be held in Madrid at the end of June.
The call corresponds exclusively to the Government, which must communicate its intention to the president of the Chamber and register its initiative so that it is qualified by the Table. It is this body, in which they have a majority PSOE y United We Can, the one that fixes the exact dates of its celebration at the convenience of the president. The minimum between the communication to the Chamber and the holding of the debate is 15 days, although the usual thing is that the announcement is made more in advance.
For now there are no clues. In the opposition they take for granted that the Government is postponing the initiative while waiting for a more favorable political moment. The inflationary crisis, Congress’s disapproval of the turnaround on the Sahara, tension in relationships Algeria and the recurring clashes within the Minister council blur the rendering of accounts that Sánchez hoped to fulfill with the success of the vaccination campaign, the arrival of funds from the UE and the exit, with social measures, from the economic hole caused by the pandemic.
face to face confrontation
For the first opposition party, a situation like the current one, in which the government has so many weak flanks, would clearly be favorable except for the circumstance that its new leader cannot confront the president face to face in Congress. In it People’s Party are willing, however, to try once Feijóo have a seat in the Senate.
If successful, it would be the first time. Antonio Hernandez Manchaleader of the then Alianza Popular between 1987 and 1989, he claimed it once morest Philip Gonzalez and was not allowed. Despite this, in the PP they debate the legal possibilities offered by article 196 of the Regulations of the Congress, according to which when the Government sends a communication for debate, following the intervention of the Executive, “a representative of each parliamentary group” may speak. It is not specified that he has to be a deputy, they point out in the PP, even knowing that this is an interpretation that the Presidency of the Chamber would hardly accept.
The truth is that the time is right for the PP. The popular They have overcome their leadership crisis and with Feijóo they feel strong. But its new president does not have a seat in Congress and that is an obstacle in the work of the opposition, although not an impediment, to try to take advantage of a moment in which the polls, including the CIS from Tezanos, los rise up and in which they claim to have alternatives to offer, just when the economic deterioration pierces the pockets of citizens and the Government exhibits its internal divisions.
If Feijóo cannot intervene now, in case the Government finally convenes the debate, he might not do so in the remainder of the legislature either. The call for debate is only in the hands of the Government and lacks fixed rules. That is why the PP calls for its regulation in the Regulations, first of all so that, except in the case of an electoral year with its consequent investiture debate, it has to be held annually, and so that the resolutions that result in it approved are mandatory.
On March 7, they registered an initiative in which they denounce “the Government’s stubborn refusal to submit to parliamentary control” and accuse it of placing itself “in a position of primacy over Parliament, perverting the separation of powers and ignoring the obligations derived of the proposals approved by the House.
They recall that since Sánchez became President of the Government there has been no Debate on the State of the Nation despite its importance “as a public balance of the political situation and as the origin, in turn, of new parliamentary mandates, whose fulfillment should be held accountable.” subsequently to the Chamber.
In its proposal, the PP claims to “effectively comply with the mandates emanating from the majority will of the Chamber”, whether they are proposals not of law, motions or resolutions of the Debate on the State of the Nation, “as an essential condition to guarantee the quality of democracy and the legitimacy of government.
