2023-08-18 03:01:00
The Spanish Congress of Deputies that emerged from the last elections was installed this Thursday and elected a socialist to preside over it thanks to the support of the Catalan separatists, which increases the possibility that the acting president of the government, also a socialist Pedro Sánchez, be reelected. The Catalan-speaking Francina Armengol, 52, obtained the votes of 178 deputies, two above the absolute majority, including that of the legislators of Junts per Catalunya, the formation of Carles Puigdemont that represents the hard wing of the Catalan independence movement.
Armengol, who was regional president of the Balearic Islands region, culturally very close to Catalonia. she defeated Cuca Gamarra, the candidate of the right-wing Popular Party (PP), which means a hard blow to the intentions of its leader, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, to be sworn in as president of the government. The PP was the most voted in the general elections of July 23, but does not reach an absolute majority of 176 of the 350 seats in the Congress of Deputies, which will elect the future president of the government, not even with the seats of its allies of the far-right party Vox.
The Barcelona attacks
The support for Armengol’s candidacy by the independentistas of Puigdemont, a refugee in Belgium since 2017 and claimed by the Spanish justice, came following an agreement promoted by Sánchez that provides that Catalan and other Spanish languages can be used in the Congress of Deputies. It also contemplates that Spain tries to make these languages work in the European Union, and the creation of a commission of investigation into the alleged espionage of Catalan independentists by the Spanish intelligence services.
Furthermore, the agreement contemplates creating a commission of investigation into the jihadist attacks in Barcelona and Cambrils in 2017, which will be six years old this Thursday, because the independentists suspect the State. “We must clarify the links” of the Spanish intelligence services “with the imam Es-Saty”, the ideologue of the attacks, and “if the State apparatuses had information regarding the attack and clarify why they might not be avoided,” he said Junts in a statement regarding those attacks, which left 16 dead. The attacks have already been tried and ended with sentences for the three survivors of the jihadist cell that committed them, made up of nine people.
Despite the support this Thursday, both Junts and ERC (Republican Left of Catalonia) insist that the agreement for the presidency of Congress does not mean that support for Sánchez in a future investiture is guaranteed. ERC spokesman in Congress, Gabriel Rufián, said that this will be “another negotiation” that will be “much more complicated.” Puigdemont also warned the PSOE that the position of his party regarding the possible investiture of Sánchez is “exactly where he was following the elections” and recalled that the pact this Thursday is limited to the Table of Congress.
Plurality and women’s rights
Armengol’s first words as the third authority of the State were using Catalan, Galician and Basque. “From respect, all ideas fit and can be defended, accepting without qualms the plurality of thoughts and identities that coexist in our country enriches us,” defended the socialist leader to emphasize that the Chamber is “obliged” to “reflect this plurality.” to “get much closer to the real Spain”, which is “diverse” and “full of colors and loaded with nuances”.
In this context, Armengol asked to always respect “the ideas of the other, without hatred, without insults.” The former president of the Council of Mallorca began her speech showing solidarity with those affected by the fire in Tenerife, alerting that “democracies are suffering the erosion of forces that want to end them from within”, asking for measures in the face of the “climate emergency” and declaring once morest sexist violence.
“The worst scourge of our democracy is that women are mistreated and murdered for the simple fact of being women,” she stated, recalling the “unbearable number” of 35 murdered so far this year and setting herself as the first commitment as president of Congress ” tirelessly” to end violence once morest women.
“I promise to work so that it is not an anecdote that the presidency of Congress is held by a woman. I promise to work to improve our democracy,” Armengol said, quoting the philosopher María Zambrano: “If democracy were to be defined might be done by saying that it is the society in which being a person is not only allowed, but also required.
the next steps
With Congress already installed, the next stage in the process of forming an Executive will come when King Felipe VI, the Spanish head of state, nominates a candidate for the presidency or head of government, who will be proposed by the new president. of the Chamber of Deputies, that is to say by Armengol.
To be elected president of the government, the nominee must obtain an absolute majority in a first vote in the Chamber of Deputies or a simple majority in a second vote 48 hours later. If no one achieves the necessary support, Spain will have to repeat the elections within the next six months.
The spokesman for the PSOE in Congress, Patxi López, said this Thursday that the constitutive session of the Lower House shows that Alberto Núñez Feijóo “cannot appear for any investiture.” “He entered the Chamber assuring us that he had 171 fixed votes and left with 139,” López said of the PP leader, noting that he is “incapable of reaching any agreement with absolutely anyone.”
“And thus he cannot present himself to any investiture; with this PP it is impossible, it has been made clear and demonstrated,” López highlighted and expressed that the only “possible” president is Pedro Sánchez. “That is why we are going to work to reach an inauguration that gives birth to a progressive government and a legislature of progress and not setbacks. Today we are closer to achieving it,” he remarked.
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