Simon Hunter
THE LEADER of Spain’s main opposition Partido Popular has made a call for an ‘all-out political, social and judicial offensive’ against the Socialist-led government, in the wake of a marathon 12-hour political debate on Wednesday to pass four decrees.
Alberto Nuñez Feijoo also announced that he would be calling fresh street protests against the administration of Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez for January 28 in Madrid.
“The defeat is for Spain,” Feijoo told reporters on Thursday. “Spaniards are no longer equal before the law. We aren’t free because the prime minister of the nation is satisfying extortion demands with our rights, our security and our money,” he added.
Feijoo’s calls for protest were in response to the Socialists making concessions to the Catalan separatist party Junts per Catalunya in return for support for the decrees it was trying to pass in parliament on Wednesday.
The Socialists are governing in coalition with leftist alliance Sumar, but even together the two parties lack a working majority.
To pass legislation, Prime Minister Sanchez has to rely on support from a series of smaller parties, including Junts, which secured a series of concessions from the government yesterday, including greater control over immigration in the Catalunya region, before eventually abstaining at the vote to allow the decrees to pass.
To complicate the situation further, however, the Socialists’ former coalition partner Podemos voted against one of the decrees, covering a pension rise, which saw it rejected by lawmakers.
According to press reports, there are major concerns in the government that the current term could be highly unstable, should the sometimes chaotic and long-drawn-out debate seen on Wednesday become a regular occurrence.
On Thursday, Feijoo also called for Sanchez to face questioning in Congress to explain the promises he made to Junts ahead of yesterday’s debate. He also said that the PP would appeal the series of decrees approved yesterday with the Constitutional Court.
The PP has already staged a series of anti-government protests, after the Socialists agreed an amnesty deal back in November with Junts and another Catalan separatist party, ERC, that will absolve anyone who was involved in the independence drive in the region over the last decade.
What’s more, there have been near-nightly protests outside the Socialists’ headquarters in Madrid since that same month, also in opposition to the government and its deals with the Catalan separatists.
An investigation has been opened by the police after the demonstrators outside the Socialist HQ hung an effigy of Sanchez from a lamppost and beat it with sticks on New Year’s Eve.
Read more:
- Spain’s Socialist Party files lawsuit after far-right protestors hanged and beat effigy of Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez
- Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez calls on ministers for ‘unity’ as turbulent term in office begins
- Sex dolls as a form of protest: Demonstrations in Madrid against Catalan amnesty take a surreal turn
