The judicial cases that affect the Government mark Constitution Day | Spain

Everything happened on the same day, the 46th anniversary of the Constitution, in the same parliamentary headquarters decorated for the party and just a few minutes apart. First, the leader of the opposition, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, arrived, supported by his territorial barons, with the Madrid-born Isabel Díaz Ayuso on the front line. The president of the PP approached the microphone installed this Friday in the courtyard of Congress and unloaded his dark diagnosis: we are in a country where the Government “occupies the institutions of the State”, “does not respect the Cortes”, “deteriorates judicial independence”. ” and “is willing to inoculate the virus of constitutional destruction.” Soon the President of the Government appeared and the dark night turned into a bright noon: “Spain is experiencing one of the best moments in its contemporary history,” boasted Pedro Sánchez.

An hour later, with the official ceremony over and with the attendees already relaxed among wines and skewers, Sánchez and Feijóo imparted doctrine to the journalists who surrounded them in the Hall of the Lost Steps. While the president had proclaimed upon his arrival that the Government will survive until 2027 to leave “a Spain in an even better situation”, the leader of the PP ruled: “The legislature does not give any more yes.”

In the crowded room, both leaders chatted a few meters apart, without bothering to even offer a formal greeting in front of the cameras. As happened in previous years, the celebration of the Constitution, always wrapped in allusions to the consensus that made it possible, certified the open abyss between the two political forces that have starred in the last 46 years of history.

There was, yes, a fundamental coincidence between Sánchez and Feijóo. Both focused on the issue that hovered over most of the conversations and that further agitates the eternal Spanish political turbulence: the judicial investigations that hit the Government. Each one in their own way, and for radically different reasons, came to emphasize that a good part of the fate of the Executive is in the hands of the courts. Feijóo had already used the initial intervention at the microphone to reproduce his usual role as champion of judicial independence. Then, in the most informal conversation with journalists, he left a sentence: “There is no political agenda, there is a judicial agenda.”

Sánchez, who had overlooked the issue at the open microphone, then entered fully. He maintained that his Government is the victim of “political, judicial and media harassment” and, defiantly, predicted that such an operation “will turn against the harassers.” The main representatives of the judicial authorities were not absent from the event, among them the State Attorney General, Álvaro García Ortiz, who did come to greet Feijóo, who had long been his nemesis and whom protocol had placed a short distance away.

Feijóo arrived at Congress denouncing the absence of the Government’s main partners. And so it was: just like the way in which the leaders of the two main parties completely ignore each other, the absence of the sovereigntist parties has become another tradition every December 6. The representatives of ERC, Junts, EH Bildu, PNV and BNG were away from Madrid for the weekend. The PNV spokesperson, Aitor Esteban, released a statement to remind that his party does not share a fundamental law that does not include the “national recognition of Euskadi.” But Feijóo omitted that his partner was not in numerous municipal governments either. Vox justified its absence with the argument that it did not want to celebrate the Constitution “with those who fail to comply with it for the remaining 364 days.” On the other hand, Sumar and Podemos, the alternative left at the state level, did not fail the commemoration.

There were also notable absences among the regional presidents of the PP, since only those from Madrid, Galicia, Castilla y León, Aragón and the Region of Murcia attended. Some, like the Castilian-Leonese Alfonso Fernández Mañueco, took the opportunity to insist on the idea that “equality among Spaniards is in danger” due to the plans to provide Catalonia with unique financing. The only one of the four socialist barons who attended contained great symbolism, precisely because he came from Catalonia. After 14 years of absence from the Generalitat, the Congress was president Salvador Illa with a message for the right: “The best way to celebrate the Constitution is not to appropriate it.”

The anniversary was celebrated months after the third constitutional reform since 1978, which, with an unusual agreement between all parties except Vox, allowed the term “disabled” to be deleted from article 49 to replace it with “people with disabilities.” Representatives of this group took center stage in the simple act that preceded the institutional speech of the president of the Cortes. The socialist Francina Armengol took advantage of this reform to highlight that the Constitution “is not immovable” and that it can be modified in order to keep it “alive.” “It is more important to comply with the Constitution than to reform it,” said Armengol, “but it is gratifying to see that it is possible – although difficult – to modify points through great consensus without breaking our essential norms of coexistence.”

The president, who began her speech with a reminder to the victims of the dana, did not avoid a reference to the messy political climate. He recalled that, with the times of absolute majorities buried, the current political fragmentation requires “a lot of dialogue and debate.” And there he slipped his appeal to the political groups, which he has already repeated more than once in the chamber with little success: “Society carries many concerns, and we have the obligation to dilute the tense and noisy environment in which “On too many occasions Parliament becomes.”

This time, at least, the PP saved the fierce criticism that it has directed at Armengol on other occasions. The Congress lived a day of celebration with a certain tranquility. But as far as dialogue between adversaries is concerned, not even to say good morning.