The two major parties in Spain, the PSOE and the PP, have agreed this Wednesday, as every year, in their applause for the Christmas speech given the day before by the King, although neither of them wanted to assume their share of the blame for what Felipe VI qualified as . The head of state urged the parties and administrations to put aside the anger, pursue “consensus”, protect the “common good” and foster a “high-level” dialogue to face the great problems and challenges of the Spanish people. Socialists and popular people have stuck to the literal defense of those words, without anticipating any future changes in their behavior.
“Philip VI understands that political life must be marked by serenity. We cannot agree more,” the PSOE has written on its official X account. “Consensus must be the way to dedicate all our efforts to the well-being of the citizens of Spain. And to those affected by dana: you will never be alone. The State will be there for as long as it takes,” the message adds, alluding to another of the central elements of the King’s speech: the vindication of the “common good” and the duty of public administrations to .
The president of the PP and leader of the opposition, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, has ignored Felipe VI’s appeals to the parties to reduce the decibels in the political debate and has focused on applauding the recognition shown by the King “to the solidarity of the Spanish people, their demand for the common good as a guiding principle in politics, and their defense of the Constitution.” “The parliamentary monarchy closes another exemplary year at the service of the Spanish people. And at his side,” he wrote on social networks.
The number two of the PP, Cuca Gamarra, has spoken along the same lines: “A correct vindication of the common good by the Head of State. And in the face of the denial of the shared space that generations of Spaniards have built with so much effort, serenity and institutional trust to guarantee it.” The president of the Valencian Generalitat, Carlos Mazón (PP), thanked the king for “his memory, closeness and affection for Valencia” for the words dedicated by the head of state to the province. “A speech that once again demonstrates his stature and humanity,” he noted.
Much more critical has been the response from Sumar, the party that governs Spain together with the PSOE and which has described the speech as “disappointing and right-wing.” “DANA was not a problem of coordination between administrations, but of climate denialism and political negligence. Pointing out migration as a problem is serious. Not mentioning sexist violence or sexual assaults is even more important,” the platform on the social network X has listed. And it adds: “Not a mention of the Palestinian genocide or the war in Ukraine. Not even the climate crisis. A speech locked in a paradigm, that of ’78, that no longer says anything to almost anyone. Even less to younger people.”
The president of Junts per Catalunya, Jordi Turull, has said that he did not see or hear the King’s Christmas message because he believes that what the head of state says is “absolutely irrelevant and lacks credibility” as long as he does not begin by “apologizing for what he did on October 3rd and from October 3rd [de 2017]”, in reference to the appearance of Felipe VI two days after the illegal independence referendum was held in Catalonia, when he demanded the restoration of constitutional order.
Turull has also attacked the “executioners in toga” and the “delusional gravediggers” who maintain – as the PSC has done this week – that Catalonia “has turned the page” on the independence process. “No one here will be able to turn the page” until Catalonia reaches its “fullness,” he said during the traditional floral offering at the tomb of the former president of the Republican Generalitat Francesc Macià in the Montjuïc Cemetery.
