Alex Trelinski
SPAIN’S Prime Minister, Pedro Sanchez, has challenged opposition parties to bring his government down via a censure motion put before Congress.
In a letter to PSOE Socialist party activists, Sanchez said he would continue to fight corruption and once again apologised over former leading PSOE figure, Santos Cerdan, who resigned last week.
Cerdan was implicated in a Guardia Civil report sent to the Supreme Court over allegedly arranging bungs for public contracts with ex-minister Jose Luis Abalos and his former advisor, Koldo Garcia.
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Cerdan denies the allegations and says he is totally incident.
The Prime Minister said that leaks of the report were being selectively used by the conservative Partido Popular(PP) opposition for political gain.
“It is reprehensible that the content of that report has been put at the service of a deliberate attempt by the right to overthrow a legitimate government,” said Sanchez.
He admitted that ‘no party is safe from the infamy of corruption’, but has insisted that the difference is in ‘how you react to it’.
Sanchez added that Spain has institutions that function as a ‘demanding’ citizenry and a government ‘that responds’.
He also told PSOE members that despite the party going through a difficult time, they should not ‘lose perspective’.
“There is no rotten system whose reform must be addressed politically but a democracy that defends itself from cases of corruption, with the law and justice.”
The Prime Minister challenged the PP and the far-right Vox party to file a motion of censure.
He said they should present a ‘coherent’ and ‘alternative programme’ for the country, but he believed it would not happen because they do not have one.
“They are not united by what they want to build, but by what they intend to destroy,” he added.
Sanchez claimed the only thing the PP can offer Spain is the support of the far right and this is ‘incompatible with progress, rights and freedoms’.
Over the last few days, he has made it clear that he has no plans to call an early general election with the next one scheduled for 2027.
A key factor in his favour is that minority regional parties from areas like Catalunya and the Basque Country would not been keen to deal with a PP administration.
That therefore means they would be highly likely to support the status quo if it came down to a censure vote in Congress.
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