Feijóo calls for protests against a government that closes ranks with its allies

Felipe II, Puerta del Sol, the Temple of Debod, Plaza de España, Puerta de Alcalá, and... back to Plaza de España. The People's Party (PP) will take to the streets of central Madrid on June 8th, starting at 11 a.m., for the sixth time in this term to protest against the "irresponsible caste" of the government.

That's what Alberto Núñez Feijóo announced yesterday in a statement without questions. He responded by calling for this citizen protest, and admitting that he doesn't have the numbers to warrant a vote of no confidence in Parliament, to the "gravity of the events revealed in recent days," which, according to the Popular Party leader, "put the integrity of an entire country to the test."

The Moncloa government's "corruption network," which operates through "mafia-like practices" such as offering immunity to criminals, promising promotions to corrupt police officers, extorting public servants, and threatening judges and journalists, according to Feijóo, seeks impunity to remain in power "at all costs."

"This situation is unacceptable for any democrat," exclaimed the leader of the opposition, for whom Pedro Sánchez's "immorality" is "incompatible with democratic decency" and "enough must be said." How so? Well, since the Prime Minister has no intention of resigning and intends to serve out his term, the PP will fight him "in all arenas and for as long as this agony lasts": from the Cortes to the courts, and even in the streets.

The PSOE assumes that the alliance that made the investiture possible will not budge in the face of the PP's offensive.

Shortly after the PP's initiative became known, the government and the PSOE responded: "The Popular Party has believed its own lie," they warned. "There is no corruption scheme," they concluded at the Moncloa Palace.

For this reason, they rule out both the fall of the Prime Minister, despite the daily demands of the PP and Vox, and the possibility that the parliamentary majority for the investiture will be broken to support a motion of no confidence against Sánchez that would lead to the investiture of Feijóo as Prime Minister, with Santiago Abascal as Vice President. "The members are not crazy," they emphasize in the Government.

"There is no corruption scheme, and therefore, the government will not fall, nor will the members support a motion of no confidence because there is no corruption scheme," they emphasize. Nor do they believe that the new demonstration promoted by Feijóo, no matter how loud the decibels, will be massive or have a major impact.

"The members don't call us to see what's going on, because they know nothing's happening," they point out. "Feijóo is describing a reality that doesn't exist; it's a theater that isn't real," they insist. "There's a lot of normality here; we manage and approve measures in the Council of Ministers and in Congress," they assert at the Moncloa Palace.

However, yesterday Feijóo appealed to the PSOE's partners—whose "connivance," he pointed out, "paints only themselves"—and asked them to let the executive fall: "Seven years ago, they said they supported a motion of no confidence to combat corruption. If they were consistent, they should do the same now, without a doubt," Feijóo challenged the two center-right nationalist parties—Junts, as the heir to CiU, and the PNV—that in the past contributed to the alternation.

The June 8 demonstration in Madrid will be the sixth against the government in the current legislature.

"I'll be clear: the motion of no confidence to remove corruption from the Moncloa government doesn't depend on my will. It depends on those who have given it parliamentary support until now. If they want to put an end to this, the PP is still available. If they don't want to, rest assured that they will drag them down, and that the majority of decent Spaniards will make them complicit in this degradation and will never forget it," Feijóo argued.

But times change, and one day after celebrating the fact that Catalan and Basque are no longer official languages ​​in Europe, the outstretched hand of the PP president was not well received: "This man must be a real joker. Does he want our support to go even further against the Catalan language, as they've admitted they have done these days?" asked the leader of the Catalan independence movement, Jordi Turull. "This is not right in the head," he concluded.

And while the Basque nationalists, with whom the few remaining bridges were blown up in the confrontation between the PP spokesperson in Congress, Miguel Tellado, and the current president of the PNV, Aitor Esteban, who left the Cortes last March after 21 years as the voice of moderation and restraint, maintained an eloquent silence, the minority partner in the left-wing government, Sumar, called it "unheard of" that Feijóo would consider leading a motion of censure.

This is how Second Vice President and Minister of Labor Yolanda Díaz described it: "We are facing a completely disoriented PP: in the morning they say one thing and in the afternoon the opposite," she said from Bilbao.

On the other hand, from the ideological antipodes of the plural left, Vox demanded the immediate presentation of a motion of censure despite being doomed to failure, since Feijóo only has his 137 seats and the 33 of the far right – in addition to the vote of UPN and, perhaps, that of Coalición Canaria, who gave him the yes in his failed investiture in 2023 –, while distancing itself from the call announced by the PP.

PSOE members find Feijóo's request for their vote "unbelievable," and Vox distances itself from the march: "It's not the time."

"This is not the time for party meetings or demonstrations, but rather the time to present a motion of no confidence that explains to the Spanish people what alternative we offer to this government of criminals," declared Santiago Abascal, using an inclusive plural for Vox and the PP. "This is not the time for party meetings or demonstrations, but rather the time to present a motion of no confidence that explains to the Spanish people what alternative we offer to this government of criminals." However, in the afternoon, the far-right leader joined a march that intended to reach the Moncloa Palace shouting "Sánchez to prison."