The PP suspends negotiations to unblock the General Council of the Judiciary. In a statement sent to the media this afternoon, the party has reported that its leader, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, has called the Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, by telephone, to whom he has transferred that he will not resume talks until the Executive does not renounce reform the crime of sedition, committed to ERC, without the participation of the PP.
ERC paves the way for Sánchez to reform the crime of sedition
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The negotiations between the Government and the PP to renew the CGPJ after almost four years of blockade were advancing at a good pace. This same week, the parties had assured that the talks were going “well” and that they were “progressing”. But in the last few hours, the reform of the Penal Code has returned to the political scene to modify the crime of sedition. This same Thursday, during the Budget debate, the Minister of Finance, María Jesús Montero, reiterated the commitment to bring the reform to Congress.
Sánchez also pointed it out a few days ago. And the ERC’s position, softer on the terms and content, had paved the way to face the reform.
But in the PP it has not liked that the Government recovers this promise of reform, to which those of Feijóo oppose, in the middle of the negotiations for the CGPJ. In the statement sent this afternoon to the media, the PP says that “through the interlocutor designated by President Sánchez to address the talks, [se] He had transferred that it was not in his plans to undertake that modification” of the Penal Code. “Sánchez has confirmed to Feijóo that his legislative agenda includes this reform, and consequently he is not going to renounce its modification”, he adds.
“It is an insurmountable inconsistency to agree on the reinforcement of the rule of law at the same time that it is agreed with other parties to unprotect it”, points out the text, which indicates that “only” there can be “two reasons” for the Government to have recovered the plan: “ or demands of the independence movement or a vocation to paralyze an agreement to depoliticize Justice that was very advanced and that does not seem to convince the Government.
Feijóo “has offered President Sánchez to address together any reform of the Penal Code that affects the crimes of rebellion, sedition, as well as the criminalization of calling an illegal referendum,” the statement said. And he concludes that “the talks are suspended while waiting for the PSOE” to decide whether to incorporate the PP into the sedition negotiation.
right hand pressure
Sánchez had tried during the morning to separate the reform of the Penal Code from the negotiation with the PP by the CGPJ. In an appearance in South Africa, the president had assured that “the call to strictly comply with our constitutional obligations no one can fail”, and had anticipated that the agreement with the PP “is ready”.
In the PP, however, they say that it is not. And, in fact, some media have published this morning that those from Feijóo had sent a message to the Government warning that the collusion of both negotiations was unfeasible. But in a subsequent public act, the leader had separated both issues. Or, rather, he had spoken out long and hard against the reform of the crime of sedition without once mentioning the CGPJ.
Hours later, the PP has sent a statement in which it has suspended talks with the Government. The decision coincides with an offensive by the right-wing media against the Feijóo leadership for not standing up to promises to reform the crime of sedition. Also from Vox, criticism of the leader of the PP has intensified for talking with the Government and agreeing what they contemptuously call a “distribution” of seats in the CGPJ.
Criticism has also come from within the PP, with Isabel Díaz Ayuso at the helm. In April, the Madrid president already warned that she did not support “agreeing with the disaster”, in reference to Sánchez. And more recently she had ironized that the Government was going to fill the CGPJ with “Tezanos”, by the president of the CIS. This same Thursday, the leader has concluded: “I have said what corresponds to whom it corresponds.” And she explained: “That’s why it’s up to me right now not to hinder or bother or be a problem for anyone, quite the opposite. I am at the entire disposal of everyone”, he informs David Noriega.
Media pressure against the leader of the PP has also intensified. “He is not going to become president,” said this Thursday the esRadio announcer Federico Jiménez Losantos, who has defended Ayuso’s positions against the Galician’s strategy. Other media related to the right have recently published surveys with negative data for Feijóo and opinion columns
