European elections lead to victories for Conservatives and Liberals in Ireland before Sinn Féin collapses

The government blames Feijoo for the emergence of Elvis in order to “whitewash the far right”.

Government minister and spokesperson, Pilar Alegría, has accused the PP’s leader, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, of encouraging the emergence of extreme agitator Luis ‘Alviz’ Pérez, who gained three seats in the European Parliament with an anti-immigration and anti-feminist speech and against an alleged political and media “mafia”.

“When you whitewash the far right, when you govern with the far right, when you copy the policies and speeches of the far right, here’s what comes out: where before there were two leaders, now there are three. Because in that competition there will always be someone more ultra than you,” he said at a press conference after the Council of Ministers.

Writing Elena Herrera

The government denies that the resignation of Yolanda Díaz in Sumar could affect the continuity of the coalition

Minister and government spokesperson, Pilar Alegría, has assured that the crisis that has opened in SUMAR after the resignation of Yolanda Díaz as coordinator will not affect the continuity of the coalition executive. In the press conference after the Council of Ministers, Alegría said that the step in favor of the vice president “corresponds to an internal issue, limited to the scope of SUMAR.” and that it aims to maintain the “roadmap” marked by “good” employment data or the economic sector, as well as to advance with the “progress agenda”.

In this sense, he reiterates that the decisions announced this Monday by Díaz “reveal a democratic culture associated with left-wing parties, which generally open a process of reflection and calm reading of the electoral results” and, in his opinion, “generally open stages of strengthening in the organizations.”

Writing Elena Herrera

Vox joins Clean Hands and calls for charges against Pedro Sánchez’s brother

Santiago Abascal’s party has asked to be able to file a popular accusation against David Sánchez, brother of Pedro Sánchez, in a case opened at the request of a complaint from Clean Hands. Vox is trying to join the proceedings after having done the same in a case in which Begoña Gómez, wife of the President of the Government, is accused.

A court in Badajoz decided to accept a complaint in which the pseudo-association led by ultra Miguel Bernard accused the president’s brother, the head of the Performing Arts Office of the Badajoz Provincial Council and the president of the institution of not going to work and reaching the position through nepotism, based on news published by the digital El Debate.

Writing Alberto Pozas

Feijoo criticized Yolanda Díaz for “keeping the offices, the drivers, and the official house of the ministry to herself”.

The leader of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijoo, criticized this Tuesday the second vice president of the Government and Minister of Labor, Yolanda Díaz, who resigned from her position as coordinator of Sumar after the result of the European elections, while retaining her position in the executive. “It is a strange way to assume political responsibilities for a failure, maintaining offices, drivers and the official house of the ministry,” he said during an open speech before the party’s executive committee. “Some politicians in Spain always surprise,” he concluded.

Writing Aitor Riviero

Vox wants King to give a speech against the amnesty law and call on judges to “fulfill their obligation.”

Pepa Millán, Vox spokesperson in Congress, asked the King this Tuesday to speak out against the amnesty law, which has been published in the Official State Gazette after being approved by Congress. According to what she denounced, the government has “forced” the monarch to sign the text, and now the Spaniards “feel abandoned” by Felipe VI asking them to act against the norm. Although Millán did not specify the formula for that statement in the press conference he presented in the lower house, sources in the far-right party have specified that the best would be through a speech similar to the one the King gave on October 3, 2017, after the unilateral declaration of independence of Catalonia. However, this proposal is impracticable, since the Constitution states that any act of the monarch must be authorized by the government.

The Vox spokesperson also called on judges to “fulfill their obligation”, insisting that they should not apply the ex gratia remedy favourably, although she later denied that by doing so she was calling them to “disobedience”.

“It is time for the institutions to try to resist the coup, to defend Spaniards, to defend national unity and the equality of all Spaniards before the law. Also the judges and the king, who has been forced to sign a law that makes the speech he gave on October 3, 2017 illegal, Millán exclusively pointed out.

By Carmen Moraga

The European PP is no closer to Meloni after first contact with the Greens

With the hangover of election night over, the presidents of the parliamentary groups of the European Parliament had their first contact this Tuesday. The head of the European People’s Party, Manfred Weber, has assured that the groups agree to respect the concept of Spitzenkandidaten, that is, that the proposal to preside over the European Commission be one of the names that were presented, in this case that of Ursula von der Leyen. But this decision corresponds to that of the heads of government of the 27 countries, who will begin negotiations next week on the future distribution of power in the EU.

But the main image that remains from this morning is the 30-minute conversation that Weber himself had with Greens co-president Terry Reintke, who has offered to negotiate the next parliamentary majority given the possibility of traditional partners (the EPP), Socialists and Liberals, for example, going out of the way when it comes to validating the proposal for the European Commission presidency. Reintke has conveyed to Weber his intention to negotiate as long as the extreme right is kept out of the equation and the progress of the green agenda is respected, which was largely hindered by farmers’ protests in the last phase of the previous legislature.

Iratxe Garcia, president of the Social Democrats, has also warned the EPP leader that his “red line” is an alliance with the extreme right. As he did on Sunday and Monday, Weber has maintained ambiguity about a possible alliance with the Greens or some forces of the extreme right – he has made it clear that the “Nazis” of the Alternative for Germany will not enter the equation. And, in particular, he has mentioned that some far-right parties of the Reformists and Conservatives (ECR) group inspire more confidence in him than the Greens, using as an example the vote on the immigration pact, which he recalled Fratelli d’Italia of Giorgia Meloni or the Czechs of ODS voted in favor of and which the Green group rejected.

By Irene Castro

Águeda Mico assured that Compromís “will not be part of any regrouping at the state level of the Spanish Left”

Águeda Mico, Compromís’ spokesperson in Congress, has declared that the Valencian party “will not be part of any state-level regrouping of the Spanish Left.” Although they intend to “cooperate and collaborate horizontally with other state political projects”, they want to do so with their own “autonomy and independence”.

Asked about this possible integration in another space after the resignation of Sumar’s leader, Yolanda Díaz, Mico indicated in a press conference that it would have to be up to the parties that are part of the group “to see how they want to rethink” themselves and how “they want to continue that journey.”

Podemos, on the resignation of Yolanda Díaz: “We decided to turn the page and respect the decisions of the other parties, today nothing is going to be different”

Podemos will continue to focus on strengthening its political party and is not making any gestures towards Sumar and the parties that make up the coalition, despite the resignation of Yolanda Díaz this Monday. When asked about a possible restructuring of the entity after the movement, its spokesman in Congress, Javier Sánchez Serna, recalled that in December, when they left the coalition, they had decided to “turn the page”.

Podemos decided to leave Sumar in December to be able to do politics in this Congress, to propose its initiatives, to speak in plenary sessions and to denounce NATO’s war plans. Podemos decided to turn the page and respect the decisions of the other parties. Today is not going to be different, the leaders of Sumar will have to give an account for what is happening,” he said, defending that after the results of the European elections “a transformative left has been reestablished.”

By Alberto Ortiz

PSOE rebukes Vox for Abascal’s visit to support Netanyahu: “Beware of Israel’s heavy hand”

Javier Rodríguez Palacios, one of the PSOE representatives in the Defense Commission of the Congress of Deputies, has slammed Vox for the meeting of its leader Santiago Abascal with Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem two weeks ago. “He went there to say how tough a hand. Tough stance with whom, with Hamas or with the Spanish military serving in Lebanon? Because beware of the heavy hand of Israel,” said the Socialist deputy.

Rodríguez Palacios responded to Alberto Asarta, one of the Vox spokesmen on the commission, who brought up the death of six Spanish soldiers in Lebanon in 2006. The Socialist spokesman recalled that, currently, “the biggest threat that our army faces in Lebanon no longer comes from those cells of Al Qaeda, it comes from the bombing of the Israeli Defense Force.” He added, “The latest incident with our soldiers in Lebanon is due to the heavy hand of Israel.” In 2015, Corporal Francisco Javier Soria died in an Israeli attack on Hezbollah in the south of the country.

By Alberto Pozas