Alberto Núñez Feijóo was at the head of the Xunta for 13 years. And it is in that period of time that the public contracts on which a commission of the Parliament of Galicia is going to investigate are concentrated. But the work will have to be carried out without the now leader of the Spanish PP appearing: his party has used its absolute majority to control the body created in the Autonomous Chamber and prevent it from being summoned to give explanations.
The blockade of the PP has been the constant in the face of the opposition’s attempts to examine emergency contracts during the pandemic, the awards to the company in which Feijóo’s sister, Micaela Núñez Feijóo, is a director or the decision to lift the Álvaro Cunqueiro hospital in Vigo with a privatization model that entailed an extra cost of 470 million euros. The reason for rejecting that Feijóo be called to appear now, according to the current head of the Galician Government, Alfonso Rueda, is that the questions could have been asked during his 13 years at the head of the Xunta – in that period there were already proposals to investigate and information was requested, although there was not always a response. He considers that the idea of calling him is to try to “create opposition at the national level from the Parliament of Galicia and do Sánchez a favor.”
But the obstacles did not begin with this commission. The contracts of the Xunta were planned on the last plenary session of Parliament to which the leader of the PP attended as head of the Galician Government. In that session, held on April 27, 2022, the conservative party rolled out a proposal, presented by the BNG, to carry out an external audit of the contracts processed urgently as a result of the pandemic. Two years later, the rejection was repeated. And last summer, the conservative party also prevented Rueda from appearing due to the extra cost of Álvaro Cunqueiro. Then the report from the Consello de Contas on the model chosen by Feijóo to build the hospital had already been published. The commissions charged by Isabel Díaz Ayuso’s partner, Alberto González Amador, for mediating the purchase and sale of medical supplies during the pandemic had also been revealed. And that the Galician company Mape Asesores, which sold disposable gowns to the Xunta, led to a collection of 2 million euros.
In this context, the BNG registered for the current political course the proposal to open an investigation commission in the Parliament of Galicia on all these contracts and also added the orders to Eulen, where Micaela Núñez Feijóo is director for the Northwest. Finally, the Galician Chamber has created the body, although subject to the preferences of the PP. These are the latest maneuvers by the conservatives to maintain control and block the appearance of their leader.
September 10: votes against the PP, BNG announcement
It was the first matter of the return to activity in the Parliament of Galicia. The plenary session debated the proposal, registered by the BNG, to create the investigation commission. The initiative had the support of the PSdeG and the sole representative of Democracia Ourensana, but the PP opposed it. Among the reasons given by its spokesman, Alberto Pazos Couñago, was that the opposition’s intention was to “spread fake news in the hope of covering up his electoral failure.”
The BNG then announced that Parliament would also have such a commission. One point in the regulations allows a parliamentary group to open it unilaterally if it meets the requirement of having a third of the votes. In the Galician Chamber that translates into 25 seats, which the nationalist party has. This resource, however, can be activated only once in each legislature. Three days after the PP voted against in plenary session, Ana Pontón registered the petition.
October 4: the presidency, for the PP
The commission was formally established on October 4, but control over its development was retained by the PP. The majority group in the Chamber took over the presidency, for which it appointed Elena Candia. The vice president is Carmen Pomar, a fellow member of the ranks. The secretary, Luís Bará, is a deputy of the group that promoted the creation of the body.
Both the BNG and the PSdeG already took advantage of that day to insist on the need for Feijóo to give explanations in the Galician Parliament and announced that they would also demand the presence of the current president of the Xunta, Alfonso Rueda. “We cannot let those who were at the top of the pyramid avoid their responsibility,” reasoned the leader of the socialists, Xosé Ramón Gómez Besteiro. Rueda slipped a few days later that he would attend: “I have no problem.”
October 15: the operating rules, those of the PP
The first step of the investigation commission was to provide itself with rules for its operation. The proposal that went ahead was that of the PP, amid complaints from the opposition. Both BNG and PSdeG demanded that the agreements had to be adopted by a qualified majority of two thirds. But as soon as the session started, the president, Elena Candia, clarified that it would not happen. He cited a report from the legal services of which the opposition groups had not been informed to ensure that the proposal “deviates from the regulations.” That is, with a simple majority, for which the votes of the PP are enough, it would be enough to block appearances or requests for documentation.
In that session, the deputies of the conservative formation admitted only two suggestions from the opposition: a correction of what they considered a typo regarding the purpose of the commission and an addition from the PSdeG so that the documentation be sent in the shortest possible time.
November 8: veto of Feijóo’s appearance
The second step to investigate was to specify what documents and statements are necessary. The commission met last week in a tense atmosphere: the BNG had previously accused the PP of having shown signs that it was going to roll over again. With the meeting scheduled for the afternoon, the groups attempted a rapprochement in the morning. They even took a break in the session, but the result was once again that the popular ones moved forward with their proposal without changes.
The name of Alberto Núñez Feijóo does not appear on the list. Nor that of his sister or that of Ayuso’s partner. All the Health Ministers do appear since 2005, that is, since the bipartite of PSdeG and BNG that preceded the Feijóo governments. The requested documentation also dates back to that same year.
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