Bid to bring down the government falls flat
Far- right party Vox slammed for wasting time during a pandemic
ALTHOUGH far- right party Vox already knew they did not have enough support in Parliament to pass their motion of no confidence against the government, they took full advantage of the time and attention it afforded them to speak uninterrupted.
Between their deputy for Barcelona, Ignacio Garriga and party leader Santiago Abascal, they spent three hours and 20 minutes attacking the Socialist ( PSOE)- Unidas Podemos coalition in every imaginable way, but offering almost no detail of any alternative policies of their own.
The accusations ranged from the government’s ‘ criminal’ handling of the pandemic and dealings with regional separatist parties, ‘ social- communist’ economic policies and ‘ attacking’ the king, to blaming China for the coronavirus, and conspiracy theories involving billionaire financier George Soros, amongst many others.
Sr Abascal targeted Basque party Bildu by reading out the 853 names of every single person killed by terror group ETA.
He claimed the EU plans to set up a ‘ federal megastate’ like China, the Soviet Union or ‘ the Europe that Hitler dreamed of ’, and compared exhumation of Civil
War victims to Stalinism, and rumours that the cross monument might be removed from the Valley of the Fallen to ISIS.
But their hyperbole was met with silence and indifference by the usually noisy chamber, as the spokespeople for the other minority parties each waited their turn to refuse their support.
Instead they variously criticised Vox for its ideology and for wasting everyone’s time when the country has much more serious problems to deal with.
The most extensive reply came from Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez who chose to give a detailed rebuttal of Vox’s criticisms, as well as calling on the Partido Popular ( PP) to cut its ties with the far- right and reveal which way it would vote.
He rebuked the ‘ hatred’ and ‘ intolerance’ espoused by Srs Abascal and Garriga, accusing them of ‘ sowing hatred amongst Spaniards’.
The PM countered Sr Abascal’s claims to be a patriot by accusing him of hating half of the Spanish people.
The Partido Popular ( PP) did not make its position clear until Thursday, when leader Pablo Casado said they would vote against the motion and launched into his own, unexpectedly harsh criticism of Vox.
He accused them of seeking
division and polarisation, and wanting a country of beatings and trenches where everything is black and white, and tainted by hatred and fear.
Even vice- president and Podemos leader Pablo Iglesias claimed Sr Casado’s takedown had been ‘ brilliant’, but said it had come too late since the PP and C’s alliances with Vox had enabled this ‘ monster’ to grow.
“They gave oxygen to the monster and now the monster is devouring them,” he said.
Bildu spokesman Oskar Matute claimed that even with the PP the motion would get ‘ less votes than a Spanish representative at Eurovision’.
Spokesman for Basque party PNV, Aitor Esteban denounced the ‘ spurious’ use of Parliament’s time by Vox. He accused the party of spreading hatred, trying to create division and ‘ looking for time on television’.
Sr Aitor said the far- right party wanted to ban things they didn’t agree with, such as his own party. He noted that they even think Franco’s regime was better than the current government.
“They have presented a motion of no confidence that was never going to get anywhere in the middle of pandemic and during an economic crisis,” he lamented.
In the end only Vox’s 52 deputies voted in favour of the motion and all the other 298 voted against, making the fifth motion of no confidence during Spain’s democracy the one which garnered the least support.