The PP’s bid against her as a candidate to become number two on the Von der Leyen Commission is raging fire in the Strasbourg Parliament. It counterpoints Alberto Núñez Feijóo’s promise: “We must change, we need a self-critical and collaborative policy,” he promised on the 4th, 24 hours after the . It is the third major attempt to place responsibility for the autonomous region’s lack of foresight on the Government. First, it was attributed to the passivity of the AEMET, which clashed with the reality of its previous red alerts. Then, to the Júcar Confederation, which also clashed with the evidence of its continued reports. And finally, to the Spanish candidate for the EU Executive.
It is the biggest hunt launched against a (rival) candidate for European office. Not the only one. This party cultivates a long tradition. In June 2012, he asked for the resignation of the Vice President of Economic Affairs Joaquín Almunia, for mentioning that there was a vulnerable Spanish bank, without danger: five days after the bank rescue was approved by the Commission and after a half-year period after Minister Luis de Guindos revealed to the Financial Times . Guindos himself publicly pushed to resign vice of the European Investment Bank (EIB), Margarita Álvarez, Andalusian advisor when the fraudulent ERE…, recently exonerated of prevarication. And the coordinator Elías Bendodo considered (August 2023) a “democratic anomaly”: then the party congratulated her, but for “not contributing to the growth of the Spanish economy” (sic). It is true that the PSOE opposed Miguel Arias Cañete for commissioner – due to his conflicts of interest – but it was an isolated case, since it accepted Guindos’ nomination for deputy of the ECB, despite having presided over Lehman Brothers-Spain and being the protagonist of the scandal of the preferred.
Both packaging and personal issues are covered by policies. It is the strange habit, unusual among the Twenty-Seven, of raising domestic issues to Brussels or Strasbourg, appealing to Europe against the Government, sometimes harming the obvious interest of Spain. Feijóo himself did it in March 2023. He met in Brussels with the president of the Commission and other members of the Commission. And in the end, the head of the Economy, Paolo Gentiloni, urged him to make “constructive opposition”: Spain was risking the delivery of 10,000 million of the Next Generation funds, for which the alleged “patch” was a key requirement.
The PP also aligned itself with the governments before its approval austeritarianproposing severe conditions to the recovery programs. And he tried to force a critical evaluation of the parliamentary mission to Spain on its execution, another risk for the receipt of resources. At its end (February 2023), the super-rightist who chaired it, Monika Hohlmeier, declared: “We have not discovered any fraud or infringement.” Something similar happened with the “Iberian exception” that reduced the electricity bill for Spaniards and Portuguese, and which the PP described, in order to prevent it, as an “Iberian scam.”
MEP Dolors Montserrat and Deputy Secretary Esteban González Pons stand out in this patriotic task. His campaigns against amnesty and the Catalan language, about Venezuela, and his dangerous comparisons with the (previously) illiberal Poland amuse the head of the tribe, the German Manfred Weber, who promises parliamentary investigation commissions never created. And they are tricks and bait for European diplomats from governments opposed to Spain’s proposals: the bulk of the work is done by some… Spaniards. It doesn’t happen in any other serious country.
