The deputies had just settled into their seats, while the president of Congress, Francina Armengol, warned that at some point the government control session this Wednesday would be suspended due to an emergency drill that would evacuate the entire building. An anonymous female voice emerged from the hemicycle:
—My goodness, what a day awaits us!
Because at that moment there was already an emergency. But it was another one. And not precisely simulated. The word had spread as the deputies entered the session hall: the UCO was at the PSOE headquarters in Ferraz. The leader of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, stopped in the hallway and fired at the journalists: “We are in an agonizing situation.” Feijóo foreshadowed what was going to be the central speech of the Popular Party, with the groups supporting the Government in the crosshairs: “It is urgent that the partners say: ‘It’s over, call elections.”
The Popular leader did not intervene in the session because Pedro Sánchez was not there. The president, at the same time another judicial action brought his party a little closer to the abyss, was seeking in the Vatican the blessing of a Pope to whom the left-wing Government has entrusted as its great hope. Such strange times these are.
The main duel of the session was fought between the PP spokesperson, Ester Muñoz, and the first vice president, Carlos Cuerpo. Muñoz entered with artillery at will. Without waiting any longer, she praised the UCO’s visit to the socialist headquarters as another sentence against the Executive and turned to those who support it:
—Aren’t you ashamed? Will you be able to swallow all this corruption?
The Popular spokesperson completed a noir novel narrative, with a Government in which, according to her, the rescue of the airline Plus Ultra unleashed “a fight between criminal gangs” whose bosses would be two joseluises: Zapatero and Ábalos.
Since Cuerpo’s rise to the second rank of the Executive, a kind of cat-and-mouse game has been established in Congress. The PP tries to bring it to the political field, while the also Minister of Economy clings tooth and nail to his technical profile. This Wednesday, Cuerpo had it harder, but he worked hard. His interlocutors — he faced three questions from the PP, two from Vox, one from Junts and another from Podemos — spoke to him about corruption and he responded by praising his policies and economic record. Which brought a novelty: no one from the Government tried to shake off the pressure by mentioning the PP’s history of scandals.
There came a moment when Cuerpo had to confess that this was “an absurd dialogue.” Faced with the third attack from the Populars, with Jaime de Olano as battering ram, the vice president tried to stick to the literal of the written question, which inquired whether the Government “is responding to the demands of the citizens.” But Olano only spoke of “criminal organizations, prostitutes and drugs.” So Cuerpo gave up half of his time:
—I consider the question answered.
Data on the reason for the presence of the Civil Guard in Ferraz was not yet known and the PP was already firing rockets seeing there the confirmation that the PSOE has financed itself illegally, the red line drawn by several of Sánchez’s partners. Olano addressed the ERC spokesperson, Gabriel Rufián, to remind him. Then Elías Bendodo extended it to the entire range of groups that invested Sánchez. When it was known that the UCO incursion had another reason, the Leire Díez case, the revelry of the control session had already passed.
The partners shrugged, amid certain signs of unease. Although Junts ignored corruption, its deputy Josep Maria Cruset painted an “apocalyptic” picture, in Cuerpo’s definition, to denounce that the Tax Agency has turned into a “monster that relentlessly pursues” citizens. Podemos, which when the first news of Zapatero’s indictment emerged spoke of lawfare, has reversed its discourse. So much so that Ione Belarra urged Cuerpo to reflect on “how sad and disappointed a progressive person must feel to see that even Zapatero has been able to put his hand in the till.”
Miguel Tellado could not let the announced emergency fire drill pass without giving free rein to his inexhaustible metaphorical vein. “If you hear a siren, it’s not that the Civil Guard is coming,” joked the PP secretary general. The excitement on the Popular bench gave wings to his humorous creativity. The Government “is a barbecue, because it is full of chorizos.” And Zapatero, “Jack Sparrow, the pirate of the Caribbean.” Enthusiastic with such analogies, his colleagues gave Tellado the great ovation of tomorrow.
The number two of the PP wanted to challenge the second vice president, Yolanda Díaz, with a brief and categorical question: “What is your limit?” He found the most energetic version of Díaz. The vice president called Tellado “the Vito Quiles of the PP” and replied that her limits are the “policies” of the right, which she labeled “heartless.” Then, she distanced herself from Zapatero. She said she “does not like at all” what she is seeing and hinted that it will be the justice system that must determine whether the former president “has committed a crime or not.” The shouting broke out on the PP bench, with Tellado at the head amid screams and gestures. “Have some manners!” Díaz reprimanded him, increasingly angry. And she concluded:
—There are people who do not make ends meet, there are people who cannot feed their children and there are former presidents of the Government, whatever their names, who get rich and do business. Both.
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