Congress, the seat of national sovereignty, is in an induced coma. From the past August 17the start date of the legislature, the EEG of the Chamber remains flat except for two spikes: the plenary session that, at the request of its president, was held to give the green light to the use of co-official languages in parliamentary activity and the failed investiture debate of the leader of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo.
Beyond these two events, Congress has fallen into a lethargy that turns its back on the ruling of the Constitutional Court, sponsored precisely by the PSOE, according to which the Chambers cannot be in office and have the right to control the Government even when This is in a “unemployed” situation.
Positions and arguments in politics change hands depending on the context. The claim in favor of the Legislative being able to exercise its constitutional competence of control over the Executive, even when it was in office, was skillfully handled in 2016 by the opposition, then represented by the PSOE, which, faced with the refusal of the Government of Mariano Rajoy -then in a situation of extension– to go to Congress, attracted the opinion of the majority of the groups and promoted the presentation before the Constitutional Court of a conflict between powers of the State.
Now, the situation is the same but the actors have exchanged roles: the president of Congress, Francina Armengol, at the obvious desire of the Government, prevents the activity of the Chamber: the holding of plenary sessions, appearances, control sessions, meetings of the Board of Spokespersons and has even restricted to a minimum the calls of the Board, the body in charge of qualify the initiatives of the parliamentary groups. Furthermore, he keeps the setting of Pedro Sánchez’s investiture debate on hold, waiting for one date or another to suit the socialist candidate depending on the negotiations he maintains with the pro-independence parties.
In 2018, the Constitutional Court ruled on the matter, agreeing with the arguments presented by the parliamentary forces in favor of control of the acting Government by the Chamber, thereby promoting a resounding reversal of the theses put forward by the Executive of Rajoy.