Unsurprisingly, the motion of censure Vox presented to the coalition government PSOE and Unidas Podemos failed. After 11 hours of debate on the first day and three more on the second day, the initiative that presented former communist leader Ramón Tamames, aged 89, as an alternative to Pedro Sánchez, received just 52 votes from the far-right party and an independent deputy from the ranks of Ciudadanos. More than the votes in favor or the 201 votes against, the abstention of the main opposition party, the PP, turned out to be the big news.
The Spanish Prime Minister did not overlook the parties’ rapprochement to the right and criticized the People’s Party’s “indecent abstinence”.
Two years ago, when the same Vox used this parliamentary tool and proposed its leader Santiago Abascal as a candidate for the prime minister, then PP chairman Pablo Casado made a point of demarcating his centre-right formation from extremism and condemned the initiative.
Now under the presidency of Alberto Nuñez Feijóo – absent from the parliamentary debate – the people believe that turning their backs on the third political formation entails high political costs.
Polls show that in the next parliamentary elections, which will take place sometime between November and January, an alliance between the PP and Vox, as has been practiced in the region of Castile and León since February 2022, could oust the Socialists from power . “We are not going to vote yes out of respect for the Spaniards and we are not going to vote no out of respect for Mr. Tamames,” said PP spokeswoman Cuca Gamarra, announcing the abstention.
But not everyone in the party agrees: Community of Madrid President Isabel Díaz Ayuso said the motion allowed Pedro Sánchez to leave “on the shoulders” of Parliament.
Source: DN
