The PSOE spokesperson in the Extremaduran parliament was the first to intervene on the second day of the investiture of the popular María Guardiola. Piedad Álvarez Cortés criticized the “stoppage” that the repeat election and the “national priority,” which allowed the PP’s agreement with Vox, have meant for the region. “Neither you nor anyone can hinder or prohibit access to education, healthcare, and to any person living in Spain. National priority is neither legal nor humane. Even Ayuso has told you so,” she defended. On the other hand, the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, has returned to the Congress’s control session after almost a month without facing questions in the Plenary. The opposition leader, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, criticized in his turn that Spain “is at the bottom of the EU in investment and infrastructure.” Sánchez responded by quoting Feijóo himself, who said that Spain should reach 22 million social security affiliates, a milestone that was crossed this month. The president also criticized that the PP has not supported the regularization of immigrants: “You finance yourselves off the books and want workers off the books.” For her part, Mertxe Aizpurua, from Bildu, reproached the pending agreements to be fulfilled, and Miriam Nogueras, from Junts, called for an early election due to the government’s lack of support.
EL PAÍS offers free real-time political news. If you want to support our journalism, subscribe.
Hereu: “There are moral, political, and economic reasons to support regularization”
“Regularization is a major request from all industrial and hotel sectors of our economy in Spain. Therefore, it is an obvious necessity, and I also believe there are moral reasons to promote it,” justified the Minister of Industry and Tourism, Jordi Hereu, when asked in the corridors of Congress about the consequences of extraordinary regularization in the sector.
Hereu did not deviate from the script when assessing the debate on “national priority” opened by the government agreement between the PP and Vox in Extremadura. “I believe in the rights of citizens, and therefore I believe there are moral, political, and also pragmatic and economic reasons to support this regularization process, which I believe is in line with the values of the Europe we want to promote,” he stated.
Extremaduran PSOE: “National priority is neither legal nor humane”
If the new Extremaduran socialist leader, Álvaro Sánchez Cotrina, is on paternity leave, the turn to defend the PSOE’s position went to the current spokesperson, deputy Piedad Álvarez. “She has been the worst president in the history of Extremadura,” she said in reference to María Guardiola. Álvarez recalled the popular baroness’s view on Vox in 2023 when she criticized Santiago Abascal’s party like no one else in the PP had, and weeks later reached a government agreement with the ultra-right party. “During this time [referring to the paralysis the region has experienced since last December 21, with the elections] Extremadura has lost 600 million euros.” Álvarez questioned the duration of this pact, which she called “illegal.” “Neither you nor anyone can hinder or prohibit access to education, healthcare, and to any person living in Spain. National priority is neither legal nor humane. Even Ayuso has told you so.”
PSOE: “Six months lost for Extremadura due to a distribution of seats”
Piedad Álvarez Cortés, spokesperson for the PSOE in the Extremaduran Parliament, began her intervention by criticizing that the repeat election has meant a “stoppage” for the region. “During this time, Extremadura has lost 600 million euros that could have been used, for example, to pay for rehabilitation and energy efficiency aid that has not been disbursed, abandoning 400 Extremaduran families,” she claimed. “Six months lost for Extremadura due to a distribution of seats,” added Álvarez Cortés.
EXTREMADURA
Guardiola promises to comply with the pact with Vox, but omits “national priority”
The acting president will be invested again this Wednesday with the votes of the far-right and after a paralysis of almost five months
You can read the full information here
Junts demands an early election from Sánchez due to lack of majority: “What democratic argument do you have left, Mr. Sánchez, not to call elections?”
Junts spokesperson, Míriam Nogueras, criticized the President of the Government for using Catalonia “to make propaganda” while, she says, “he hides and belittles Catalan institutions.” “They drown the middle and working class with taxes, but public services are worse than ever. They worsen the housing problem, stifle the self-employed, ignore doctors, teachers, farmers, fishermen. You impoverish people to then subsidize them. And that is not our country’s model,” said Nogueras, who continued to criticize the extraordinary regularization of immigrants. “You have been in power for too long without a majority, Mr. Sánchez, due to the entire right-wing that makes pacts when it suits them, breaks agreements, approves policies behind the back of this Parliament, but does not apply the policies that are approved. And the icing on the cake of this whole panorama are the corruption cases surrounding you. What democratic argument do you have left, Mr. Sánchez, not to call elections?”
Sánchez responded to Nogueras by defending the regularization of immigrants with the argument that migrants contribute to economic growth: “We are seeing that Spain, after the pandemic, has been creating an average of more than half a million jobs, has been able to reduce the unemployment rate and, at the same time, increase the contribution of migration to our country’s economic growth. Sir, of course, this Government is going to recognize rights that will make Catalonia and Spain better countries.”
María Guardiola, in the Extremadura Assembly this Wednesday.
Investiture session begins in Extremadura
PP candidate María Guardiola will be elected president of the Junta de Extremadura after the government agreement reached between PP and Vox, with the votes against from PSOE and Unidas, following the parliamentary groups’ response to her speech on the first day of the investiture debate this Tuesday. The first group to intervene will be the PSOE.
Guardiola: “National priority does not need to be mentioned”
María Guardiola arrives at the Assembly for the third investiture session of the legislature. The PP candidate will be re-elected president of the Junta de Extremadura with the 11 votes from Vox and after an agreement that prioritizes “national priority” for obtaining aid and housing in the region. “We are going to value the roots of this land. I agree with what is stated in the agreement.”
The PP reproaches Cuerpo for corruption and he responds by assuring “zero tolerance”
Read more Elon Musk elevates his AI obsession: SpaceX secures a $60 billion purchase option for Cursor
The PP spokesperson, Ester Muñoz, asked the new Vice President of the Government, Carlos Cuerpo, if he was not “outraged” by the government’s corruption. Why did he accept to be vice president amidst all this corruption? Cuerpo assured that there is “zero tolerance” for corruption and reproached the PP for only asking him two economic questions in two and a half years. “Nor are they concerned about housing; less than 3% of your group’s questions in control sessions have been about housing. They are not concerned about the situation of companies, families, or the self-employed,” Cuerpo reminded them.
Feijóo reproaches lack of investment and Sánchez responds: “You finance yourselves off the books and want workers off the books”
The PP leader had registered, as is customary, a generic question addressed to the President of the Government: “Do you believe the Government makes Spain work?” However, his question focused on infrastructure investment: “You have had a record increase in taxes and public debt, but Spain is at the bottom of the European Union in infrastructure investment in terms of gross domestic product. Look, where are the 500,000 million euros that public debt has increased if infrastructures (motorways and AVE) do not work?” asked Feijóo.
Sánchez stepped in by detailing the “entities and institutions that rate the country’s good progress” and took the opportunity to reproach Feijóo for not celebrating Spanish employment figures: “Spain must exceed 22 million social security affiliates by the end of the next legislature, that’s what Mr. Núñez Feijóo said. A year before the legislature ends, Mr. Feijóo, we have achieved it. We have 22 million social security affiliates,” Sánchez defended before indicating that “with this Government, Spain works.” “What doesn’t quite work is an opposition that has spent years confusing its desires with reality,” the President of the Government snapped.
Feijóo continued in his response with incidents in commuter trains, Rodalíes, and AVE and referred to the victims of Adamuz. “Do you really believe that Spaniards deserve that with our security money, the friends of the former Minister of Transport are paid, or that we pay the salary of the current minister, who dedicates himself to insulting everyone on social media? The only thing more shameful than your corruption is your lack of humanity. You are relentless in collecting, you are insensitive to people’s problems,” said the PP leader before pointing out that “the only thing that matches your corruption, Mr. Sánchez, is your incompetence.”
The head of the Executive concluded his responses to the opposition leader by reproaching the agreement reached with Vox in Extremadura for María Guardiola’s investiture: “You offer Extremadura and Spain lessons in constitutionalism, and the first thing you do is kick the Constitution, violating the principle of equality between citizens and the principle of non-discrimination,” he also reproached that the PP seeks to dismantle public services: “You finance yourselves off the books and want workers off the books,” Sánchez concluded.
Government control session begins
The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, returns this Wednesday to the Congress’s control session after almost a month without facing questions in the Plenary, where the opposition leader, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, will take the opportunity to ask him about Spain’s political situation after what has happened in recent weeks.
The last time Sánchez attended Congress was for the control session on March 25, before Easter. The following week there was no Plenary, and upon the return of parliamentary activity, the head of the Executive was also not present for last Wednesday’s questions as he was on an official trip to China.
PACTS
Vox forces the PP to vote in Congress on “national priority” in aid for immigrants
Vox has dragged the Popular Party into its ultra-right discourse on immigration with the government pact in Extremadura. But Santiago Abascal wants more. For now, he has forced Alberto Núñez Feijóo to speak out this Wednesday in Congress with a text that enshrines “national priority” as the guiding spirit of the welfare state in Spain. The principle —incorporated into the agreement to invest baroness María Guardiola and according to which Spaniards have preeminence over immigrants in access to aid and public services— will be debated in the plenary of the lower house at the initiative of Vox, which has registered a motion including this “national priority” in welfare benefits. The PP’s response, pending the vote on the final text, is that it also accepts “national priority” in Congress, although for now with the nuance of “roots,” as it has done in Extremadura.
You can read the full information here
Good morning. With the focus of current events on corruption trials, the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, once again faces the PP leader, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, in a new face-to-face in the Congress plenary, where Feijóo will question his management, but also the spokespersons for Junts and EH Bildu, who demand commitments pending fulfillment in this legislature.
Furthermore, the PP candidate, María Guardiola, will be elected president of the Junta de Extremadura this Wednesday, following the government agreement reached between PP and Vox, with the votes against from PSOE and Unidas.
