The opposition leader questions the legitimacy of the Constitutional Court, the Government and Congress
The PP of Alberto Núñez Feijóo does not cease in its efforts to erode any institution that is not under its control or that acts contrary to its interests. The former president of the Xunta presented himself on the national scene as a temperate leader and defender of the State Administration in all its extension. But after less than two years, and after an electoral failure, little remains of the dialoguing Feijóo who sought to expand the social base of his party and recover the absolute majorities typical of the two-party system. His last attack has been against the Constitutional Court.
“The tumor of the rule of law today in Spain is called the Constitutional Court, chaired by Cándido Conde-Pumpido,” said the deputy secretary of Popular Institutional Esteban González Pons on Tuesday in a colloquium organized by La Vanguardia and one of the most elite business clubs in Spain. Barcelona, the Equestrian Circle. The PP MEP even hinted that his party might not challenge the amnesty law before the court of guarantees to avoid an “interpretation of the Constitution” that admits the rule that will annul the crimes committed during the Catalan independence process.
“If we do not challenge, or challenge by other means, we deprive this Constitutional Court of Cándido Conde-Pumpido of the opportunity to be able to alter the Constitution,” he said verbatim.
Pons (who was one of the main faces of Feijóo’s PP until the fiasco of the renewal of the CGPJ) qualified indirectly and lightly through the Genoa press service to withdraw the comparison with the tumor, and to contradict himself about the possible absence of an appeal for the amnesty law.
But other less offensive statements for tumor patients and their families were not rectified, and they maintain the strategy of delegitimization of the court that the PP, together with Vox, began last year. Pons described it as a “politicized court”, “interfering” in the rulings of the Supreme Court and “usurping” its place, as well as “that of the legislator.” “The referee is deciding the result of the match, and in that case our entire constitutional architecture collapses,” he stated.
The PP accuses the Government of leading a “movement against the Constitution”
The leader thus supported some words from his leader that same day, when he said that “a country where citizens are not equal before the law does not have a Constitution,” in reference to the amnesty law. A statement that Feijóo reaffirmed when he maintained that Spain is facing a “removal process.”
The idea put forward by the opposition leader is not new. He himself stated on December 6, at the events for the anniversary of the Fundamental Law, that Sánchez “leads a movement against the Constitution” and that Spain is experiencing a constitutional “crisis” “greater” than that of 23F or ETA.
Esteban González Pons, after denouncing the alleged politicization suffered by the Constitutional Court, defended the distribution of quotas between “majority” and “minority” that, he said, have normally prevailed in the guarantee court. The PP leader complained that “the vice presidency of the court is normally left to the minority” and that “this time it has been taken away.” Furthermore, he denounced that “the minority has one less magistrate”, in reference to the member of the court pending appointment by the Senate, although he failed to explain that it is a direct consequence of the blockade to which his party has subjected the CGPJ for more than five years.
“The judges of the pro-government sector of the court have voting discipline,” he said, which would allow the inference that the other sector is “anti-government” since it would represent “the minority.”
Beans, against everything
The PP thus maintains a strategy defined many months ago and sustained over time, which consists of calling into question all the public institutions that it does not control and that operate differently from how the party believes they should act, always for its own benefit.
In 2023, Feijóo questioned the cleanliness of the elections, and the president of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, expressly warned of a “pucherazo” without her leader rectifying her. For the PP, the INE, Indra or Correos were at the service of Pedro Sánchez and his interests. Of course: the accusations were diluted after the recount of the polls on July 23.
Feijóo has also attacked the legitimacy of the Government, pointing out the investiture of Pedro Sánchez as “corrupt”, a “fraud resulting from a “transaction”, in reference to the amnesty agreed with Junts and ERC. Just a year ago, after the attempted coup d’état in Brazil, he already cast doubts on the Executive and its “assault” on the institutions.
This same month of January, Feijóo has raised the bar to also attack Congress. If at the beginning of the legislature he attacked the institutional role of Francina Armengol at the head of the Lower House, last week he questioned whether Parliament is carrying out its work. Thus, he said that he would use the Senate “so that parliamentary groups can speak, can encourage discussions and can appear and request the mandatory reports that the Congress of Deputies omits when it approves bills that are decisive in democracy in our country.”
