Spain Notes, Sept 26: Feijóo + rapist priest
1/ The big day and opportunity for PP leader Feijóo finally arrived. Headlines prior to the start of the confidence debate had him “reinforcing his leadership of the opposition” (El País), “relaunching the centre-right” (El Mundo) and going through a “precursor to hard opposition” (El Confidencial).
2/ He delivered a decent enough speech before lunch, referring to the Transition and the Constitution and all of the other standard conservative talking points. He said Puigdemont had offered him the same deal as Sánchez but that his integrity did not allow him to accept such a Faustian bargain.
3/ His main policy suggestion appeared to be the creation of a new crime, aimed at the separatists, which the PP would call “disloyalty to the Constitution”, along with more severe punishment for the misuse of public funds, the other crime the Catalan seperatist leaders were convicted of. Why does the PP not just reintroduce sedition, which Sánchez repealed to please the separatists, instead of creating a whole new crime?
4/ Other parties will give their reactions speeches after lunch but initial reactions came in comments after Feijóo finished. Patxi López (PSOE) said that there was “an absolute vacuum” of ideas in the PP, that “this is the week [Feijóo] is not going to be appointed PM, as everyone knew from the start”, and that the speech was more an opposition attack speech on Sánchez than a speech to win support and govern.
5/ Pepa Millán, for Vox, thanked Feijóo for thanking Vox for supporting his appointment with their MPs and then railed against the separatists a bit for trying to destroy Spain.
6/ Yolanda Díaz (Sumar) called it “a farce” and said it was all “a waste of too much time”. The party tweeted that Feijóo was “a candidate without the support who has already positioned himself in opposition”.
7/ Basque nationalist Aitor Esteban (PNV) tweeted that “this looks more like a motion of no confidence against the interim government than a confidence debate [in Feijóo]”.
8/ “No court is going to fix a political problem”, said Bildu spokeswoman Aizpurúa, “everything that helps channel political problems back into the lane they should never have left is welcome”.
9/ “The amnesty is not the end point, it is the starting point”, said the First Minister of Catalonia, Aragonés (Esquerra). They want a vote, a referendum. They want to do it all again.
And in non-political news today…
10/ A priest in Vélez-Málaga (Andalusia¨), the son of a nun, was arrested in relation to the drugging and rape of five female acquaintances after his girlfriend found a hard drive full of porn images he recorded of himself sexually assaulting the women.…
11/ El País reported church authorities had known about the crimes for months but had just decided to move the priest from Melilla to the villages of Málaga, “for health reasons”. The Church now says it is “shaken by the evil” and is asking God to end sexual violence against women.
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