Euro Weekly News: Political point of view from Spain

Euro Weekly News: Political point of view from Spain

Baited words and promises

THIS week we have seen the gloves come off with politicians going to extremes in battle and stooping childishly low with name-calling. Pablo Iglesias is the centre of attention due to his encounters with Cayetana Álvarez de Toledo in parliamentary headquarters.

Toledo dedicated her speech to an attack on the Podemos leader, calling him an “impostor”, “liar” and “son of a terrorist”. Iglesias struck back by taking a swipe at her noble status and mockingly referring to her as a “marquise”. Álvarez de Toledo is indeed the Marquise de Casa Fuerte.

Now, this is all going on whilst these “leaders” and decision-makers are supposed to be creating a way forward for Spain and people are struggling through the economic fallout from the health crisis. The tactics are reminiscent of the days of the “two Spains” and show far more of a split than unity.

Whilst this is going on Sanchez has now made clear his plan to push for a sixth and final State of Alarm. He has finally been able to make a deal with the ERC, Catalonian party who previously abstained from backing one extension and voted against other extensions.

However, this deal is not only to give autonomous leaders their power back, it looks as though they may have some kind of deal in the pipeline that will benefit them over the coming months.

The Basque party, PNV, have also given the go-ahead with their support of the State of Alarm.

Sanchez said during his request on Sunday that his country needed two more weeks of lockdown until June 21 “to finish with the pandemic once and for all”,

Congress will meet on Wednesday to vote on the extension and should it go ahead it will mean that from June 21 the State of Alarm should end and with it the lockdown, allowing residents to move freely throughout their regions and from July 1, they should be able to move throughout the whole of Spain.