The strategy is clear: question the government of Pedro Sánchez in the EU. Alberto Núñez Feijóo did it last week when he rejected the pension reform or the execution of European funds after visiting the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and the PP has been doing it in the Eurochamber throughout the legislature regardless of the conjuncture. He now he has done it again. The right has taken advantage of a general debate on the rule of law in the EU to include a specific point on Spain and sow doubts about the functioning of democracy. The debate will take place this Thursday, just two months after the last one. Citizens and the extreme right have endorsed the maneuver.
Brussels urges to renew the CGPJ before reforming it in the umpteenth attempt of the PP to attack the Government in Europe
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“If we are going to have a joint debate with the report on the rule of law and Greece, there are other cases that can be included”, said the PP MEP Jeroen Lenaers when defending the change in the agenda of the Plenary Session of the European Parliament. His words came just after the group’s leader, Manfred Weber, opposed the inclusion of Greece on the grounds that the House should take on “European debates.” “We have been inspired,” Lenaers ironized while the progressive benches reproached him for the turn.
“The behavior of the Spanish government is increasingly moving away from the rule of law,” said the Conservative MEP, who has ensured that the Executive “invents a law when it does not like the way the judicial system works.” He has also questioned the election of the State Attorney General’s Office, which is the same system that operated when the PP governed. “When they don’t like democracy, it seems complicated, they govern by decree and there are those who have said to govern by decree is to act like a dictator,” he asserted. “We ask for a debate on the rule of law in Spain, he has sentenced him.
A socialist MEP has responded to Lenaers who has reproached him for “daring” to request a debate of this type (which will be accompanied by a resolution that will be voted on in April) when the PP has been blocking the renewal of the Judiciary for four years. This is one of the main concerns that the European Commission underlines in its conclusions on the rule of law in Spain. “This is undemocratic and it is scandalous”, has settled the socialist parliamentarian. The inclusion of the debate has gone ahead with 400 votes in favour, 224 abstentions and 163 against.
Anger after the arrest of Ponsatí
It has not been the only time that Spain has starred in the plenary session that began in Brussels this Wednesday. At the beginning of the session, the MEP of Junts Clara Ponsatí has taken the floor to complain about her for her “illegal detention” this Tuesday, when she returned to Spain and was arrested by the Mossos d’Escuadra and transferred to judicial dependencies. Ponsatí, who has left his appearance before the Supreme Court magistrate Pablo Llarena on April 24 upon his arrival in Brussels, has charged against the president of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, for not having proceeded to defend her immunity . “Is it a policy of the presidency or is it just an attitude that it reserves for us Catalans?” She asked the conservative leader. “It is unheard of for a judge to order an arrest for a crime that does not imply deprivation of liberty, such as disobedience. We demand that the president defend immunity”, added the ERC parliamentarian Diana Riba.
Metsola recalled that it has referred the matter to the European Parliament’s Committee on Legal Affairs to analyze the situation.
The PP has not missed the opportunity to continue the anger and attack the Government. They do what they want. “You are fugitives from Justice, you have violated the law and must answer before the Spanish justice system. Enough of so much secessionist theater, of electoral numbers”, the head of the PP delegation, Dolors Montserrat, has reproached him: “The only thing that has changed here is that Sánchez has given in to you for fear of losing power by lowering the Code Spanish criminal”. “Socialist gentlemen, the dignity of a country is never sold for even a handful of votes,” she lashed out.
The same has been done by the MEP for Ciudadanos Jordi Cañas, who before entering the chamber had assured that his group would prevent the matter from becoming a “circus”. “I would like this Chamber not to be used for a political show”, said the MEP, who applauded Metsola’s decision to send the matter to the Legal Affairs committee chaired by his leader, Adrián Vázquez.
The Commissioner for Justice, Didier Reynders, for his part, stated at a press conference this morning that “there are provisions that allow arrests to be made”, despite the existence of immunity. “There have been several arrests in various cases of both parliamentarians national and European parliamentarians”, defended the commissioner, who has assured that his team is waiting to receive information from the Spanish authorities to “verify” the case of Ponsatí.
Source: www.eldiario.es
