Unexpected protagonists in Sánchez inauguration debate

Carlos Perez Gil

Madrid, Nov 15 (EFE). – The first day of the inauguration debate of the acting head of government, Pedro Sánchez, was marked by the confrontation with the leader of the Popular Party (PP), Alberto Núñez Feijóo, which unexpectedly turned other politicians into protagonists during the session held in Congress.

The President of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, and the still Minister of Equality, Irene Montero, and even the late poet Antonio Machado, monopolized the spotlight, during the interventions.

Machado’s quote

The amnesty agreement between the PSOE and the Catalan Independentists, in exchange for the votes of the last to guarantee Sánchez’s investiture, was expected to be the thorny issue of Wednesday’s inaugural debate.

What was unexpected is that the argument between the Socialists and the PP, ended up being mostly about poetry.

In his speech, Sánchez invoked the Spanish modernist poet Antonio Machado to defend coexistence and reunification in Catalonia.

“Today is always still,” said the Socialist leader quoting Machado, while referring to the fact that there is still time to negotiate and find political solutions to the question of independence.

In response, Núñez Feijóo accused Sánchez of not finishing the sentence and leaving out the second part: “Now is the time to fulfill the promises we made to each other.”

“Even with quotations, he lies,” he accused him.

However, the president of the government corrected Feijóo, assuring that the addition was not the work of Machado, but came from musician Ismael Serrano, who claimed it on social networks before Sánchez took the stand.

“My quote is the valid quote,” Sánchez concluded, to reaffirm himself in the verse of the famous Andalusian poet of the ’98 generation.

Díaz Ayuso’s insult

Among the popular regional presidents who supported Núñez Feijóo from the guest platform was the president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, whom Sánchez described as “the intellectual leader of the PP”.

The Socialist reminded the PP leader that his predecessor, Pablo Casado, had accused Díaz Ayuso’s brother of corruption in the sale of masks during the pandemic.

After the comment, when the television camera focused on the president of Madrid, some read on her lips a curse directed at Sánchez.

The PP leader’s team justified it by saying that it was “for herself”, but that in any case it was “the minimum that the acting president of the government deserves after making an accusation of corruption without evidence”.

“Courage” for Montero

All the current ministers sat on the government bench, including the two from Podemos, Ione Belarra and Irene Montero.

Both members of the progressive party are on their last legs, as Sánchez and the second vice president and leader of Sumar, Yolanda Díaz, have no plans to include Podemos in the new cabinet.