The king has designated Pedro Sánchez as a candidate for the investiture. This was announced this Tuesday by the president of Congress, Francina Armengol, after the head of state’s round of contacts at the Zarzuela Palace with the political leaders who wanted to attend. Sánchez will thus try to obtain the confidence of Congress after the fiasco of the leader of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, who succumbed last week. Armengol will now have to set the dates for the investiture debate and vote.
“His Majesty the King, having completed the consultations and in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution, has informed me of his decision to propose Mr. Pedro Sánchez as a candidate,” the president of Congress announced this Tuesday in statements to the press, before the statement that the Royal House will send soon.
The general secretary of the PSOE must now convene the different parliamentary groups to try to add the necessary votes to be re-elected president of the Government. Sánchez’s objective will be to repeat the 178 votes that gave PSOE and Sumar control of the Congressional Board, and which includes these two parties, in addition to ERC, Junts, EH Bildu, PNV and the BNG. They are the same ones that Feijóo had against in the two votes last week.
Sánchez also aspires to add more support: that of the Canarian Coalition. Although at first the Canarian president and leader of CC, Fernando Clavijo, implied that this negotiation was underway and with the possibility of bearing fruit, this week his deputy in Madrid, Cristina Valido, assured that she was far from ‘yes’ to the socialist leader.
A vote that would not be essential for Sánchez, who if he achieves those 178 votes he would have the absolute majority of Congress and could be elected in the first vote.
Armengol will wait for these negotiations to progress before setting the date for that investiture plenary session. “I will convey the decision to the candidate and obviously I will listen to his proposal of the necessary times, because it is about carrying out the appropriate negotiations now to present an investiture with sufficient agreements to move forward,” the president clarified.
“There is until November 27 to make this investiture possible. The important thing is that the candidate has the time. My sense tells me that when the situation is mature we will convene the plenary session in the most urgent manner,” he added.
“Overcoming past disagreements”
Following the king’s order, Sánchez appeared at the Moncloa Palace and appealed to the “responsibility” of the pro-independence forces. He has called for the reissue of a progressive coalition government “to complete the overcoming of past disagreements”, in reference to the amnesty law and the political conflict in Catalonia.
The acting president has indicated that this Wednesday negotiations will begin with the representatives of all political groups except for Vox. They will also address the PP, although not to “gather their support” nor “as they did, to appeal to the worst of corruptions, which is transfuguism,” he has assured.
Source: www.eldiario.es
