Two votes of difference make the Socialist Pedro Sanchez Prime Minister

USPA NEWS - The Plenary Session of the Congress of Deputies on Tuesday granted Pedro Sánchez his confidence to be invested president of the Spanish Government, after the second vote of the investiture session, in which the candidate proposed by the King received 167 votes in favor, 165 against and 18 abstentions, which exceeds the simple majority - more votes in favor than against - required by the Constitution in the second round.

The Plenary of the 14th Legislature met at noon on Tuesday on the third day of the investiture session of Pedro Sánchez, convened by the president of Congress, Meritxell Batet, since the candidate did not obtain the absolute majority necessary to be invested president of the Government in the first round. The Socialist candidate obtained 167 votes in favor - those of the Socialist Group; the extreme left represented in Podemos; the Basque nationalists and the deputies of four minority formations with parliamentary representation -; 165 against of the conservative Partido Popular, the extreme right of Vox and the centrist Citizens, in addition to the Catalan independentists of Junts per Catalunya, the Canarian nationalists and the Mixed Group; and 18 abstentions, of the Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC in its acronym in Catalan) and the Basque independentists inheritors of the terrorist organization ETA.

On the third day of the investiture session, the candidate for the Presidency of the Spanish Government took the word to ask for the confidence of the House and then the representatives of the parliamentary groups did so to explain the meaning of their vote. Among all, highlighted the leader of the conservative Popular Party, Pablo Casado, who once again exposed the Socialist candidate to his lies and contradictions. Casado claimed the Constitution "as a way for those who comply with the law and wall for those who attempt against it," and King Felipe VI as "symbol of the unity and historical continuity of Spain" against the attacks "of the radicals that support the candidacy of Sánchez.“

A Government of terrorists and the coup plotters

The new opposition leader in the Spanish Parliament, Pablo Casado, responded to Sánchez paraphrasing the president of the II Republic, Manuel Azana, when he said: "I tolerate them attacking the Republic, but I will never tolerate them attacking Spain." He accused the Socialist candidate of having put the future of Spain in the hands of the terrorists and the coup plotters, "at the cost of dismembering the State and liquidating constitutional Socialism." He added: "The Spaniards cannot be taken hostage to guarantee the votes of their investiture, nor to the rule of law as a currency of change of their pathological personal ambition."

“You have agreed to remain in the Government at the price of changing the 78 system and not because it does not work, but because it works and very well against your partners, who have systematically betrayed you,“ said Casado. The conservative leader said that, when the Socialist candidate talks about the coexistence of sovereignty, "he is assuming that it is worthwhile to bring national unity to the cutting room in order to remain in power." And he regretted that Sánchez assumes a contradiction between democracy and legality, "when there can be no democracy without the rule of law." "The law is the price of freedom, and freedom is the prize of the law," he added.

The conservative leader reminded Pedro Sánchez that there is no more legitimate power than what the laws grant and warned him that "nationalism intends to turn his crime into its source of law and power" with his consent to continue in La Moncloa palace. "This week we have finally discovered what was inside that Russian doll: the most radical partners who never dreamed of participating in the governance of Spain," said Casado.

He considered that the future of the PSOE "would be worth more honor without government than government without honor" and accused Sánchez of having crossed the Rubicon when defecting from his constitutional obligations. "No one dared so much ever," he said, before denouncing that the Socialist candidate "has become the straw man of nationalism," instead of being "a man of State."

“Either we save everyone's or nobody will save theirs. There can be nothing more if there is less Spain," said Pablo Casado and pointed out as the only hope of millions of Spaniards that Sánchez deceive his allies" as he did with his constituents and, thus, his government will last little." "You can not invoke the dialogue to destroy the dialogue par excellence, which is our Constitution," said the conservative leader, while recalling that in Spain "we dialogue, we reconcile and set the rules of our democracy game [...] We will never propose that fear change sides, because we have no side, because two sides are not a whole country, but a country torn apart,“ he concluded.

Sánchez will promise his position before the King on Wednesday, after the publication of his appointment as Prime Minister in the Official State Gazette. After this process, it is planned to appear at the Moncloa palace, seat of the Spanish Government, to announce his Cabinet, in which there will be five ministers from the extreme left.