Sánchez pressures the PP for an immigration pact and promotes social measures in search of broad consensus

The parliamentary week did not leave much room for optimism. With a reform of the immigration law pending agreement between the Government and the PP that serves as an urgent response to the situation in the Canary Islands, the gap that the Congress agenda had reserved for a broad debate on immigration policy was covered, once again , due to the opposition’s anger. And on a not infrequent topic: the terrorist group ETA. The Executive’s intention, however, is to put this tension aside and pressure the popular parties to agree to sign an agreement on the reception of migrant minors. And at the same time, accelerate legislative reforms that can have broad parliamentary consensus, such as the family law or the reform of the gag law.

Last Wednesday, at the request of the Popular Party, the House’s agenda established an appearance by the President of the Government on immigration management. But after 50 minutes of Pedro Sánchez’s intervention, the opposition leader took exactly three seconds to change the subject as soon as he took the floor. “Mr. Sánchez, you have spoken about the dignity of migrants. I expressly ask you to withdraw the law that annuls more than 300 years in prison for those convicted of ETA terrorism.” And Feijóo didn’t come out of there.

Engulfed in a first-level political crisis due to the vote in favor of a reform that now requires repeal, a Popular Party cornered by internal and external criticism decided to use the plenary session to try to cover up its setback. And the way he found to do this was overacting. First, the popular ones prepared the staging of Mari Mar Blanco’s arrival at the chamber. The senator and sister of Miguel Ángel Blanco acceded to the seat next to Feijóo in the middle of the session, interrupting the president and amidst the applause of a standing popular bench.

Then, Feijóo’s own speech and tone only revolved around one idea. “You agree on prisoners for Budgets,” he said in reference to EH Bildu. And finally came the performance of spokesman Miguel Tellado. With photographs of victims murdered by ETA, she rebuked, shouted and insulted members of the Government amid laughter from some of her fellow members. And he was even reprimanded by the presidency of the House for his behavior, which among other things caused the rejection of many of the direct relatives of the victims to whom he alluded.

Already in the turn of reply, Pedro Sánchez went directly to shake Alberto Núñez Feijóo, fueling the head-on clash between the Government and the opposition. “Negotiating with you is ineffective because you don’t decide anything. The majority of your voters, many of your barons and perhaps even yourself want to reach an agreement with the Government for the distribution of minors, but the problem is that the boss does not let you,” he said, referring to Isabel Díaz Ayuso.

In the midst of this atmosphere of pitched battle between the PP and the PSOE, there are those who believe, however, that an agreement to reform the immigration law is not impossible. In less than 24 hours, in fact, the Government made the first move. After Sánchez received the president of the Canary Islands, Fernando Clavijo, at the Moncloa, the Executive used that meeting as a measure of pressure on the popular people in tandem. Clavijo himself claimed to feel “disappointed” with the attitude of his partners in the Plenary Session of Congress, and the Minister of Territorial Policy challenged Feijóo’s people to sit down again at the negotiating table from which they left.

There are those on both sides who point out that, although difficult, this agreement will eventually be finalized due to the needs of the Canary Islands and due to pressure from President Clavijo himself. And the logical thing is that the three-way talks between the Minister of Territorial Policy, the parliamentary spokesperson of the PP and the Canary Islands president can be reactivated in the coming days in a “discreet” manner.

In parallel, and also as a way to pass the weeks until the ERC and Junts congresses to address the negotiation of the Budgets, the Government intends to activate its legislative production with social reforms capable of generating broad consensus. This has recently been the case of the so-called ALS law, a years-long demand from the group affected by this disease and which was definitively approved this week with the unanimity of all political groups. And the goal is to continue taking steps in that direction.

Pedro Sánchez hopes to count on the majority that made his investiture feasible to carry out without problems the reform of the gag law agreed with EH Bildu. This reform, according to the Basque independentists, will eliminate the use of rubber balls and will urge the modification of the immigration law within a period of six months to put an end to sudden returns. And it will modify the sanctions for lack of respect for authority and disobedience. An agreement that addresses, therefore, the four points that blocked the negotiation during the last legislature of one of the pending promises of the coalition Government.

The president also announced this week that the Government is preparing to immediately implement the family law that was left hanging during the last legislature and which means, in the words of Pedro Sánchez, “expanding the rights of single-parent families, large families, migrant families and those that have a member with a disability.” The text approved by the Council of Ministers in the last legislature includes, for example, 20-week maternity and paternity leave, as well as advancing the father’s leave to accompany the pregnant woman.

The promotion of all these measures would help to make more digestible the time that still remains fallow in the negotiation on the path of stability and that of the General State Budgets. In the case of Junts, the dialogue continues discreetly on issues such as the transfer of immigration powers committed at the time. An issue that Puigdemont’s team negotiates directly with Elma Saiz’s team in the Ministry of Social Security and Migration.

A new proposal for a stability path is also being negotiated with Junts bilaterally from the Ministry of Finance, which the Executive estimates has an impact of up to 11,000 million euros on the accounts of the autonomous communities and city councils. Although at the moment the progress is not public, the motto in Moncloa is to exercise extreme discretion and offer the necessary time margin to the Catalan independence parties so that they can resolve their internal situations. In any case, Pedro Sánchez ventured this week that his Government “will move forward” with the accounts and stressed the message of a long legislature.