There is pure ice between the leadership of the PP and Vox after the breakup in the regional governments. This coincides with a political context that is making the course end with increasing speculation about the hackneyed motion of censure by the popular party, after the last slap in the face by Junts in Congress to Pedro Sánchez by knocking down the spending ceiling and also the reform of the immigration law. The insistence of Alberto Núñez Feijóo in putting pressure on President Sánchez, with the argument that the Legislature is over, and he has to call elections, gives even more credence to the hallway comments between political leaders, not only from the main opposition party, about what may happen in the next political season that begins in September.
And in the midst of these speculations about how long Sánchez will hold out without being able to govern, because there are no prospects of improvement in the situation of instability and lack of productivity in the Legislature, it is striking how among barons, precisely the first affected by the break with Vox, and among other top-level leaders of the party, the idea is taking hold that Vox could no longer be counted on even to carry out a motion of censure against Sánchez. Or put another way, that they are a tougher nut to crack at the moment, due to the drift of confrontation they have embarked on, than even Junts. The regional presidents tell you: “There are no options for a motion of censure. Vox would not give Feijóo this much after Abascal’s latest farce.”
If we look at what is being said in the popular ranks, the problem is on the right, but more on the right of Vox than on the right of the pro-independence party, who are being watched from both sides with uncertainty about what Carles Puigdemont will do if the agreement with ERC, announced by the entourage of the President of the Government, to appoint Salvador Illa as President of the Generalitat, is confirmed. If we enter into the game of suppositions, if Puigdemont were to take to the hills and decide to use all the weapons at his disposal to overthrow Sánchez, because he does not heed his demand that he be allowed to take over the Generalitat, what, paradoxically, they fear in the PP is that the problem would come from Vox’s flank. A party with which relations are broken, even on legislative issues that may be of common interest to both parties. In fact, in the parliamentary sphere, the competition that marks the relationship between the two parties means that in some cases dialogue between the PP and the spokespeople of other forces, theoretically within Sánchez’s orbit, may be easier than with Abascal. Obviously, in the speculations about whether this situation of political and legislative paralysis could lead to a motion of censure, there is also agreement that if the numbers do not support Sánchez, they would not support Feijóo either, so this scenario would have no other escape route than that it was an instrument that had to be linked to the commitment to call elections.
ERC is passing the buck and acting relaxed. They believe that this hypothesis has no way out, no matter how angry Puigdemont might be if he is left out of the game and has to withdraw from the political scene. There is no way out, they insist, because opening the door to a Feijóo government would mean “leading them back down the path of illegalisation”.