It has been a long time since the Madrid City Council debated the amnesty law: 12 days. So it was an extraordinary plenary session of just over an hour that included a single point: to show the “total support of the city of Madrid for the Constitution and the essential principles of our democracy” and, also, to make visible “the absolute rejection” of the PSOE agreement with Junts Per Catalunya. PP and Vox voted in favor. This Tuesday, the disapproval of the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, and the Government delegate in Madrid, the socialist Francisco Martín Aguirre, was debated. The PP on this occasion has abstained and Vox has accused the group led by Almeida of being “chickens, which lay eggs, but do not have them.”
Twelve days after the amnesty debate, in the monthly and ordinary plenary session, the amnesty was discussed again. However, on December 4 there will also be another extraordinary plenary session on the Ferraz protests and, also, to ask for “absolute respect” for the results of the general elections of July 23. In this case, at the request of Más Madrid and PSOE. Vox has not requested any extraordinary plenary session because it does not have the necessary councilors.
However, like any parliamentary group, it can propose any initiative in plenary sessions. In theory. In practice, Javier Ortega Smith, the Vox spokesperson, presented two proposals this morning. First, he requested the “cessation or resignation” of the Government delegate in Madrid and then presented another one divided into seven points, where he requested to “urge” the Congress of Deputies, the Senate, the Public Administrations and “other institutions.” to, “within their spheres”, carry out actions against the amnesty law and, in addition, the disapproval of President Sánchez.
Minutes before this vote, PSOE spokesperson Reyes Maroto asked Almeida about Ferraz’s “violent acts.” “What measures are you going to adopt in the face of the negative effects of violent acts?” The mayor of Madrid has taken the stand and shown some images of the streets of Barcelona during October 2019. “They are Sánchez’s new best friends. Say with me, Hamas is a terrorist group. Lessons none. I give you some advice: Keep calm and much fruit”.
Smith arrived at the plenary session almost an hour late. He got up from his seat, adjusted his jacket and went to the stand to defend his two proposals with a white folder. Smiling, he said: “Thank you very much. Since last November 6 there have been peaceful demonstrations against Pedro Sánchez’s coup d’état.” Lately, there is a kind of parliamentary collapse in the capital’s plenary session, an invisible aura that acts as an immediate disconnection between the councilors every time the words “coup d’état” sound over the loudspeakers—practically in every intervention by Smith and every two by three by the PP councilors—that is when many of them choose to take their cell phone out of their pocket and answer some messages, read the press or look at their social networks.
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“In the face of the greatest political corruption that has occurred in Spain,” Smith continued, “and raising criminals to the category of interlocutors and facilitating a referendum on national rupture […] The PSOE is the Sanchista Otegui and Esquerra Party […] Sánchez is a danger to national unity. Sánchez is the worst Prime Minister in history because he has betrayed Spain.” During these minutes of intervention, a PP councilor answered a phone call covering his mouth as if he were a modern footballer, another looked at his cell phone and two of the five Vox councilors decided to chat with his. The halo of coups d’état.
PSOE and Más Madrid have criticized Smith for his harsh parliamentary tone and have rejected both proposals. The PP, however, has abstained in the other two and, therefore, none of them have come forward. The popular ones did want to disapprove Sánchez, but they did not want to vote in favor of urging Congress, the Senate and other institutions to carry out actions against the amnesty. “We are faced with a proposition that does not make much sense,” said David Pérez, the PP councilor who has defended abstention. “This proposal calls on social entities, groups and others that have already demonstrated against the amnesty. Yes we share the last point [la reprobación], that we would support it if it is voted by points.” The president of the Plenary Session, Borja Fanjul, then asked Smith about this possibility.
—Mr. Ortega, would you accept voting by points?
-No.
Minutes later, in the press room, the riot broke out. Smith has asked himself: “How is it possible for the PP to abstain? We cannot understand that the PP has abstained from an obvious and clear proposition. We hope that the Senate [donde el PP cuenta con una mayoría absoluta] be a containment dam against the Coup d’état.” And the question time has begun:
—Why didn’t you want a vote by points?
—It left our proposal weak.
And he said: “The PP is the party of the laying hens because they look like laying hens. They have to be roosters against this riffraff. “They are chickens, they lay eggs, but they don’t have them.” Mayor Almeida later responded that Vox is “the best alibi” that the PSOE has. “There is no better ally than Vox. Vox has become Pedro Sánchez’s best ally. “I’m not going to go into the grotesque ridiculousness.”
—Why is so little talked about Madrid in plenary sessions?
— Isn’t it talking about Madrid to tell Pedro Sánchez that we need 1,000 police officers? Isn’t talking about Madrid conveying that the amnesty law breaks equality?
This Tuesday, all the groups approved the designation of the painter Joaquín Sorolla as Adoptive Son of Madrid at the proposal of the Spanish association of painters. The PSOE has also proposed failing Ortega Smith. The spokesperson for Más Madrid, Rita Maestre, has been absent for a trip to the Guadalajara Book Fair (Mexico). This Monday marked two years since the death of Almudena Grandes. All groups – except Vox – voted in 2022 to dedicate a street to the writer and place a plaque on the door of her house, but everything is on pause.
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