A month and a half after the Popular Party, the Government pushes and pressures the PP to return to the negotiating table. This Saturday, the Executive will propose two specific dates to the popular parties – in principle, next week – to schedule a new meeting. The Canary Islands and Ceuta have already shown their willingness to sit down. Only Genoa is missing. But Alberto Núñez Feijóo’s party will have to respond to the offer in the midst of a scenario of maximum tension after Pedro Sánchez’s partners opened the door to a motion of censure following the statements of businessman Víctor de Aldama.
“After so much time, we have to have a definitive answer,” said the Minister of Territorial Policy, Ángel Víctor Torres, this Friday at a press conference with the regional leaders. And in which it was the turn of the president of the autonomous city of Ceuta, the popular Juan Jesús Vivas, who urged his party to return to dialogue. “I hope that the Popular Party attends that meeting,” he stated in the appearance after his meeting with Sánchez. Also the president of the Canary Islands, Fernando Clavijo, of the Canary Coalition, sent a message this Friday from Tenerife. “We have to sit down. “The pressure is unsustainable.”
The Government’s attempt to resume talks began last Saturday. That day, Minister Torres, leading the negotiations on unaccompanied migrant minors, sent a letter to the PP spokesperson in Congress, Miguel Tellado, to set the date for a new meeting, although without a specific day. Also letters to the president of the Canary Islands, Fernando Clavijo – who co-governs with the PP – and to the president of the autonomous city of Ceuta, the popular Juan Jesús Vivas. “This invitation for a new meeting comes after the Government of Spain has sent a letter to the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, as agreed in the Interministerial Commission held on October 29,” expressed the Ministry of Territorial Policy in a statement. “We must remember, because this is how it was made public, that that was the last condition that the Popular Party raised, and that that condition is also resolved,” he added.
With the Canary Islands and Ceuta willing to agree on the new date, the only thing missing is the response from the PP, which has not made a statement this week. Now, the Government is taking another step to more strongly urge Feijóo to make a move with the offer of two specific days on the agenda. However, understanding ventures far away. Privately, sources from Feijóo’s cabinet insist that their “conditions” remain “very clear” and that in this context of total confrontation, after Aldama’s testimony given before Judge Ismael Moreno of the National Court, they are not going to “ “sweeten” the position of Sánchez’s Executive, who they consider “cornered” by “corruption.”
In front, the PSOE, while Minister Torres asks PP for a “State” response that escapes the confrontation due to the case opened in the National Court to address once and for all the reform of article 35 of the immigration law to establish the mandatory distribution of unaccompanied migrant minors throughout the peninsula. “Anything they want the best is to raise it in a meeting. Either you are in the solution or you are in the ‘no’,” said the socialist leader this Friday, also pointed out by Aldama, and the object of criticism from the popular people due to what they call the “PSOE case.”
In the midst of this explosive cocktail, the president of the city of Ceuta has conveyed this Friday, to Sánchez, among other demands, his dramatic situation with the reception of minors above 400% of its capacity. “I have made clear the position that the city of Ceuta has, not as a representative of the PP, although it is also one,” Vivas expressed during his appearance. “We believe that the solution has to be structural and lasting,” he added, showing himself in favor of the reform of article 35 of the immigration law as one of the elements that articulate this “structural” situation in the future. Sources from his cabinet have revealed that Vivas has requested about 15 million euros from Sánchez to deal with the care of minors until an agreement is reached, which for the moment Genoa seems to be far away. “Everyone has to do their part here, there has to be that transfer [de los menores] based on objective criteria,” Vivas claimed in La Moncloa.
From Tenerife, the president of the Canary Islands also spoke this Friday. “We have to sit down, we have to be able to give those boys and girls a chance and also give the Canary Islands a chance, which cannot, the pressure continues and we hold on and hold on, but the pressure is unsustainable,” said Fernando Clavijo in statements collected by Europa Press.
