PSOE and Podemos postpone the meeting on the coalition with the official secrets as the last discrepancy

Given the growth of the right in all the polls, the coalition has been trying for weeks to stage its unity despite the differences they maintain on relevant issues such as the increase in military spending, the monarchy and, this week, the classification deadlines of official secrets. In order to maintain that cohesive image to face what is presented as a complex final stretch of the legislature, marked by the energy crisis and inflation, Sánchez and Díaz have decided to postpone the meeting of the monitoring commission of the coalition that was going to be held before the end of the political term.

The meeting was requested by the second vice-president at the beginning of July, in one of the most critical moments of the coalition and in the same week in which she wanted to mark her own profile, coinciding with the presentation of Sumar, the platform through which she will the “listening process” after which she will decide whether to stand as a candidate in the next general election. But, over the weeks, both sides have postponed that meeting. sine die – the most likely, sources from the Executive point out, is that it will be held in September, just after the summer break – mainly due to the turn to the left that Sánchez staged in the debate on the state of the nation, announcing many of the measures proposed by United We Can, which the formation hopes will be translated into “facts”. In this context, Sánchez and Díaz limited themselves to holding last Monday, coinciding with the last Council of Ministers of the political course, a meeting of which the content, duration or any image did not transcend.

PSOE and United We Can now strive to play down the differences within the Executive, which the right wing uses over and over again to try to wear down the Government, and seek to value the agreements. The last of them, they point out, allowed the spokesmen of both parties in Congress, Patxi López –for the socialist side– and Pablo Echenique –from the confederal group– to jointly present the legislative initiative that contains the new taxes for banking and the big energy companies. But they also remember that throughout the legislature they have agreed to approve two Budgets, a labor reform, the new educational framework, social shields and anti-crisis measures or on new rights such as euthanasia or the trans law, despite the fact that the partners maintained different positions in principle.

Deadlines for classification of secret documents

The discrepancies remain in matters such as military spending, the State model, fiscal policies or Housing, with the challenge of having to approve the law referring to this last matter -included in the coalition agreement- in the next period of sessions, as Sánchez himself promised in his last parliamentary speech. In the last week, a new difference was also glimpsed, after knowing the draft of the Ministry of the Presidency on a new law of official secrets that was approved in the first round in the Council of Ministers on Monday.

Vice President Díaz then acted as coordinator of the United We Can space in the Executive and transferred to the Ministry headed by Félix Bolaños – from the socialist wing – her “discrepancy” about the draft for stating that official secrets can remain classified for more than 50 years. That term, they point out from the confederal group, seems “very much” to Díaz, to the Minister of Social Rights and leader of Podemos, Ione Belarra, and to the rest of the ministers of United We Can. All of them also consider that the Presidency has not taken into account that the rule must be approved later in Congress, since the usual partners and, especially the PNV, have demanded that this period be reduced to at least 25, so the confederal group points out that the Executive would not have with its current proposal the necessary parliamentary support to carry out the norm.

From United We Can remember, however, that what the Council of Ministers approved is “the first round” of the law and that what they have agreed with the PSOE is to “agree on the discrepancy” regarding the classification deadlines in the negotiation of the second round of the text. “Spain is a democratic country that does not have to be afraid of knowing its past,” say sources from the confederal group, who denounced that, with the current wording, the new law would not serve to declassify documents from the dictatorship or the Transition, as the attempted coup of 23F or the violence of the GAL, among other issues.

Sánchez spoke about these differences on Tuesday, in his last public appearance before the start of his vacation in Lanzarote. From Palma, where he held the usual summer meeting with the king at the latter’s summer residence, the chief executive wanted to emphasize that “the important thing is that a pre-democratic law is going to be reformed”. The government, he said, is “committed to democratic regeneration” and recalled that the law currently in force on the matter “is from 1968, it is pre-democratic, from the dictatorship.” Regarding the term, the chief executive considered that “50 years may seem like a lot, but there are countries that have 70 years or 20 years with unlimited extensions.” However, he pointed out that, from now on, a “debate that can strengthen democracy” is opened with the groups, and also with United We Can, to achieve a consensus text.

The milestone of the state of the nation debate

At the table of the coalition’s differences are other issues such as the migration crisis, the monarchy or military spending. Precisely this last matter made Yolanda Díaz ask her PSOE partners at the beginning of July for the meeting of the commission to monitor the coalition agreement, which has been postponed without a date. The vice president was very upset by the way the majority government group acted and complained that they had not communicated to United We Can some of their latest announcements, such as the increase in military spending, the turn on the Sahara and her congratulations to Morocco for the actions of the gendarmes at the Melilla fence over the weekend, when 37 people died.

In addition, in the first act of Sumar, which on July 8 brought together more than 5,000 people in Madrid, Díaz wanted to show a clearly more progressive profile than that of the PSOE. That weekend, in an interview on The country, He assured that “the Government lacks a soul.” He was referring to the other wing of the coalition. With those words, she wanted to denounce that, until that moment, there had been no clearly leftist tendency on the part of the Council of Ministers, as United We Can have been demanding for months, the minority partner of the Executive and the political space that she herself coordinates and that already considers her your candidate.

Before the date was set for the meeting, everything changed when Sánchez delivered the opening speech of the debate on the state of the nation, evidencing that shift to the left and announcing precisely what Díaz asked for in the first act of Sumar: new taxes for some of the most powerful sectors, such as energy companies and banks. Although the vice president wanted “more” and that same day she also demanded another new tribute for the big companies, her team also insisted that these and other measures announced by the president of the Government –such as the full subsidy of Renfe transport passes, of Cercanías and Media Distancia – carried the seal of United We Can, although Sánchez also did not inform the minority partner where his announcements were going to go.

The Chief Executive’s speech narrowed the space for Díaz in his attempt to confront a PSOE further to the right of his political project and to attract socialist voters to his listening process, first, and when a candidacy is consumed that everyone in the space they take for granted, to encourage them to take their ballot. Díaz’s tone, in fact, changed after the debate on the state of the nation: “The Government has a great horizon and a certain course. Above all, it has a commitment: we are going to take as many measures as necessary to improve people’s lives, ”the vice president assured in her last appearances.

Flip the polls

Sánchez, at the end of the political term, has also made an effort to highlight the validity of the coalition until the end of the legislature. The socialist leader considers that he would send a good message to the left-wing electorate at a time when he is aiming for demobilization in the face of a right that is uniting around the PP. The president assumes that Alberto Núñez Feijóo now enjoys an advantage and that, as all the polls predict, he would now be in first position, but he hopes to turn these polls “around”. The hope is already in the municipal and regional elections in May, which will be the prelude to the national elections in December next year and to which it is assumed that Yolanda Díaz will appear leading the space to the left of the PSOE.

For all these reasons, Sánchez does not plan a break with the bipartite in the remainder of his term, which was a plausible scenario in the face of an unprecedented situation in national politics in which there had never been a coalition government. However, the president maintains that it is beneficial for the progressive electorate that PSOE and United We Can preserve the agreement until the end. “It is good that the Government arrives united at the end of the legislature. It is a good sign for the future because it means that two leftist forces understand each other”, he explained in an informal conversation with the journalists who accompanied him last weekend on the tour of the Western Balkans that he made to support the entry of those countries in the EU.

In a similar vein, on Tuesday the Minister of Social Rights and leader of Podemos, Ione Belarra, claimed that the coalition is a “success” of the left and, specifically, of United We Can and that it took “a lot of effort and time” to be able to articulate a progressive government, which is what the country needed. “We are the main guarantor of the coalition government and we want to take the legislature to the end,” she stressed. The message that both parts of the Executive are sending is that, when the Executive follow-up meeting is held, it is cohesive and has the strength to reach the general elections in December 2023.