JUAN CARLOS MERINO, CARMEN DEL RIEGO 06/12/2020
The president of the Congress, Meritxell Batet (i), together with Pedro Sánchez, during the celebration of the forty-second anniversary of the Constitution EFE
“There are plenty of reasons to celebrate not only its validity but also its strength,” said Pedro Sánchez in the very brief statement he made before starting the celebration of the 42nd anniversary of the Constitution in the Congress. Faced with this strength, the opposition parties have taken it against him by assuring that the Magna Carta and the model of State are in danger precisely because of the Government, because of the presence in it of “its enemies” in favor of overthrowing it. In the middle, the president of the Congress, Meritxell Batet, demanded an integrative reading of the constitutional text, without partisan uses, appealing to the dialogue of the political forces and claiming the legitimacy of all.
The Prime Minister has assured that this year, in addition, “there are two more arguments that we have to use when claiming the validity and strength of our Constitution.” The first, as he explained, in reference to the coronavirus pandemic. “Thanks to a constitutional instrument, which is the state of alarm, we are giving an effective response to the greatest pandemic of the last century,” he stressed.
Sánchez assures that the Constitution “saves lives”
Secondly, Sánchez has assured that, “after two years of parliamentary blockade”, the plenary session of Congress approved last Thursday, “finally” new general state budgets. A new draft of public accounts for next year that, in the opinion of the Prime Minister, “elevates the social soul of our Constitution to the highest category.” “With which, there are plenty of arguments to celebrate the day of our Constitution, the validity and strength of our Constitution,” he insisted.
Sánchez has also demanded “all political actors, all”, he stressed, “that we celebrate this day of the Constitution, that we fulfill every day of the year from the first to the last of the articles of the Constitution.” A veiled allusion to the blockade maintained by the Popular Party to prevent the renewal of the constitutional bodies with their expired mandate and especially the General Council of the Judiciary.
There are plenty of arguments to celebrate the day of our Constitution, its validity and its strength “ Pedro Sánchez, President.
“A Constitution that saves lives, thanks to the state of alarm, which is a perfectly constitutional instrument, and also because of those assumptions that raise the social soul of our Constitution to the highest level,” he has settled.
A technical failure has forced Sánchez to repeat this brief statement again, which has delayed the speech of the president of Congress, Meritxell Batet, for a few minutes. The most atypical anniversary of the Constitution, due to the restrictions imposed by the pandemic, has been capitalized by the budget pacts sealed by the government coalition between the PSOE and Unidas Podemos with nationalist and independentist formations, such as Esquerra, EH Bildu, the PNV or PDECat, whose representatives did not attend the celebration in Congress today, as is their custom.
This new parliamentary majority of the budget pact has recharged the batteries of the offensive against the alliance of Pedro Sánchez and Pablo Iglesias by the Popular Party and Vox, and has once again distanced Ciudadanos, in addition to causing an unusual escalation of military pronouncements withdrawn against the agreements with “Catalan coup leaders and Basque pro-ETA”. Political polarization, thus, is at its height. And very little in keeping with the spirit of the political transition that the Magna Carta forged 42 years ago.
They believe that the Constitution is going through difficult times because “its enemies” are running the country. PP and VOX
The most evident proof is the expression of the leaders of PP and Vox in the same act. Pablo Casado, and the spokesperson for Vox in Congress, Iván Espinosa de los Monteros, agreed that the Constitution is experiencing difficult times because “its enemies” are leading the country. The president of the PP stressed that the Constitution “is linked to the consolidation of freedom” and the PP, which had in its ranks up to four “fathers of the Constitution” “is committed” to its defense.
Casado believes that this defense is more important than ever before “a special year in the negative” because “those who declare themselves enemies of the Constitution are in the direction of the State.” This led him to have a memory for “the victims of terrorism”, who have seen how Bildu “is already key” in governance, and another memory for the Catalans, who see how pro-independence parties also become an essential piece for the Government .
Espinosa de los Monteros (VOX) spoke similar words, stating that “the enemies of the Constitution are in the Government and what they call the leadership of the State.” In his opinion, “those who do not believe in freedom” are those who are in the Government, that is why the Constitution is experiencing “a grave moment”, because it sees in the Government, for example, “an attempt to end the Parliamentary Monarchy “and with the values and principles that inspire the Magna Carta.
She emphasizes that all parties have “full legitimacy” and refuses to consider the political adversary an enemy. Meritxell Batet, Congress President
This, she said, makes “more delicate” the state of health of the Constitution, and makes Vox put all its efforts declaring that they are “opposing the worst government that Spanish democracy has had, because it is made up of the greatest enemies of Spain.”
Batet’s speech, on the other hand, focused on appealing to the dialogue of political forces and underlining that democracy and the Constitution “require accepting the other.” The president of Congress demanded an “integrating” reading of the Magna Carta that does not seek to appropriate it by turning it into a “party flag and patrimony”, and warned of the “dire consequences of considering the political adversary as an enemy”, “denying it legitimacy” or assume “a constant and unconditional confrontation”.
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