What everyone expected has happened. Alberto Núñez Feijóo, the candidate designated by the King for the investiture, has not managed to gain the confidence of Congress. His aspiration to head the Government has crashed against the wall built by the PSOE with the conglomerate of parties that make up Sumar plus the independentistas, abertzales and nationalists. His proposal has received 172 votes in favor – the Junts deputy Eduard Pujol He was wrong and voted yes but President Francina Armengol, despite the protests, decided to subtract it from the count in favor and considered it null – compared to 177 against, in a final vote for which she needed to collect more yeses than noes. .
The time of the alternative candidate, Pedro Sánchez, begins now, who before trying must be appointed by the King, something that Felipe VI is presumed to do next week after contacting the parties that sit in the Chamber. Sánchez’s claim will in any case involve achieving the support of the Catalan secessionists who are already demanding an amnesty law and a self-determination referendum in exchange for their votes.
Feijóo recalled, before the Chamber’s rejection was confirmed, his proposal in favor of leading a nation in which equality among Spaniards prevails. Thus, he has mentioned the six State pacts that he proposed on Tuesday in his first intervention and has assured that he has never asked any party to renounce the commitments they have acquired with their voters.
He has emphasized the importance of “not breaking one’s word” or “abusing the trust of citizens” and, immediately afterwards, he reproached some, in reference to Sánchez and the PSOE, for “not being able to defend what “the same thing they defended yesterday”.
There are two ways out, he said: “The Government of lies or the electoral repetition.” In short, he has tried to show that either the pro-independence parties in this House have lied or the socialist leader has lied. He has suggested that he leans toward the second option.