The president of Congress takes advantage of her speech on the day of the Constitution to give the deputies a slap on the wrist but also warns, without citing them, institutions such as the General Council of the Judiciary, that their “prestige” and “credibility” depend of the “loyal compliance” of the Magna Carta
It is not being an easy legislature for the agreement between ideological blocks. Especially, there are not being weeks for serene debate. And not only in the lower house. The political tension is already spreading to other State institutions, with a General Council of the Judiciary that has not been renewed for four years due to the lack of agreement between the PSOE and the PP and a Constitutional Court that has already become a victim of that same paralysis. . All these elements were part of the speech delivered today by the president of the Congress, Meritxell Batet, in the official acts of Constitution Day before the opposition leader, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, some regional presidents, representatives of other political forces and the presidents from the guarantee court, Pedro González-Trevijano and from the CGP, Rafael Mozo.
What is the prevailing climate, they realized not only the statements and the cross attacks of those attending the events organized in the Lower House, but also the absences. The raising of the flag organized by the Ministry of Defense, for the first time, in the Carrera de San Jerónimo, the military parade and, above all, the official reception in the Salón de los Pasos Perdidos were not attended by the main parliamentary allies of the Executive , Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya, EH-Bildu or the PNV; something that has almost become commonplace. Neither did the deputies of Junts or the PDeCAT or the CUP, Compromís or the Galician Nationalist Bloc (BNG). And, for the first time since it has parliamentary representation, even Vox was absent, which only participated in the tribute to the national banner. “We are not going to share this day with those who have exchanged seditious for Budgets,” said his spokesman, Iván Espinosa de los Monteros.
Santiago Abascal’s party and Podemos have been precisely the protagonists of one of the roughest episodes experienced in Parliament in recent years, with the discussion about the repercussions of the so-called ‘only yes is yes’ law -which has caused and half a hundred downward revisions of convictions for sexual assault and more than a dozen releases- as a backdrop. But Batet avoided in his intervention the calls ‘ad hominem’ and flew over the specific cases to make a general appeal for restraint.
“Parliament is a unique place and those of us who are part of it must be aware of this. It is the place where all citizens are represented and where they should feel represented. The parliamentary debate is the exhibition of the best virtues of the word. From the rostrum, they speak to the public, offering the opinions that each one considers best founded, giving reasons that appeal to everyone’s good sense. Citizens – she warned – expect from their representatives that the word is used to argue, not to hurt; to propose, not to offend; to build, not to hurt. It is in our hands not to disappoint that trust.
“Concessions” and “generosities”
This was the clearest slap on the wrist of the president of Congress, a praise of parliamentarism referring specifically to a matter that is part of her powers. But there were also other more subtle messages towards the parties and towards the rest of the institutions. In a sort of message to the opposition forces for their vehement criticism of Pedro Sánchez’s pacts with the independentistas (with issues such as the elimination of the crime of sedition from the Penal Code or the approaches of ETA prisoners to the prisons of the Basque Country ), Batet, a member of the PSC, argued that the Constitution was understood in its day as “an articulated and coherent set of concessions”. »Concessions –he said- that were not the product of a sort of correlation of weaknesses but of a sum of generosities«.
The president of Congress also left on the air some words that can easily be understood as an appeal to the conservative members of the General Council of the Judiciary – whom the Socialists accuse of being at the service of the PP – and who, for months, have put obstacles to the appointment of the magistrates of the Constitutional Court which, in accordance with the Magna Carta, must be renewed every nine years.
«Institutions are the visible apparatus of what our public life has wanted to have as a promise, as a binding commitment, as a guarantee. They are created by law, but they are nourished by the trust of the citizens. Maintaining its prestige, its credibility, its regular operation requires, on the part of all -he stressed-, the loyal fulfillment of the promise that they embody». Batet then quoted the former president of the Constitutional Court, Francisco Tomás y Valiente, assassinated by ETA in 1996: “Institutions gain or lose prestige for what they do,” he recalled, “but also for what is done with them.”
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