It would be difficult to find an investiture of a Spanish prime minister in which the candidate had to share much of the day's prominence with someone who was not only absent but also a politician in exile. The long shadow of president Carles Puigdemont, stretching from Waterloo, eclipsed the investiture of Feijóo and became, involuntarily, the symbol of the impotence of the alliance between the People's Party (PP) and Vox. The 172 votes of the right are four short of the total needed to reach the Moncloa, and they will fail in their attempt to enter the Spanish government palace because Puigdemont and what he represents have crossed their path. The exiled Catalan president has repeated it himself: his conditions for an agreement are for the PSOE, but also for the PP. The fact is, however, that Feijóo is tied down by Aznar and Díaz Ayuso, on the one hand, and by Santiago Abascal, on the other. And thus the only thing left for the PP is to make the argument of its useless first place at the polls on July 23rd this year.
Feijóo put together a speech that was more designed to damage Pedro Sánchez's strategy than to win the investiture for himself, something that he already considered lost. For this reason, the debate focused on the Catalan independence movement's demands and, in particular, on the amnesty law and the referendum and what these would end up implying in terms of a break with the constitutional project and with loyalty to a certain idea of Spain. Probably, the Galician politician wanted to portray the acting prime minister as the architect of the rupture of the constitutional pact, capable over a six year period of changing his position from, in 2017, supporting Article 155 of the Constitution and the suppression of self-government in Catalonia, to accepting an amnesty in 2023 that would wipe the slate clean of criminal offences for that entire period.
Sánchez did not fall for the provocation and he deprecated Feijóo by sending a sharp-toothed anti-independence fighter, in the person of the former mayor of Valladolid, Óscar Puente, who lost his position on May 28th because, despite coming first in the polls, he was shut out by an agreement between the PP and Vox. The PP leader was thus offered a dose of his own medicine in a strategem that appealed to the Socialist infantry over and above the higher ranks. A manoeuvre that caused surprise and led Pablo Iglesias, for example, to comment that it meant backing a more aggressive and incorrect profile, "sometimes openly vulgar", which gives an idea of what the Valladolid politician is like. The acting PM, always playful with the details, made use of the reserves on his team and, in a session that was relaxed for some and uninhibited for others, followed from his seat, giving more attention to his mobile phone than to the speakers who were having their turns at the lectern of the Congress of Deputies.
The investiture presentation of Feijóo made it possible to obtain a clear picture of what the legislature will be like if Sánchez is able to go ahead with his own investiture in the second half of November. Let no one be mistaken: the parties of the right will not make things easy for him and their assault will be twofold. For one, they will try to present a motion of no confidence, either with the Basque Nationalists(PNV), or with Together for Catalonia (Junts); or else, force the legislature to be as short as possible. To this end, Feijóo is committed to keeping together the triple support he has: the media, the judiciary and the business world. But the PM also has plans and will no doubt act against the first two and trust that the third will change its position, as money usually does, given that it is not exactly brave.
In summary, with the calendar that is in place, Tuesday and Wednesday will be the first two days of Feijóo's investiture, Friday at noon the second and final vote for the PP candidate and, from Monday, the screen changes to another: the countdown to Sánchez's investiture begins. Starting with the amnesty - by the way, what on earth does is achieved by considering it already a done deal in an unfinished process, even if there has been an exchange of documentation, and which requires the utmost discretion? - and continuing with the demand for an international verifier of compliance with agreements reached. We will see if the work done thus far is now fully developed, given that the countdown to the deadline for avoiding a repeat election on January 14th is about to get underway in earnest. Because the amnesty and the verifier do not mean that the negotiation of the investiture is complete, but rather, only that it is on track for a possible and hypothetical agreement. And this is a far from minor detail that should not be overlooked.