Alberto Núñez Feijóo pivoted his investiture speech around the amnesty which Pedro Sánchez is negotiating with the pro-independence parties. In his view, the acting prime minister has been captured by Junts per Catalunya and Esquerra Republicana (ERC) and promised to "not defend him". "I will not do that because I have principles, limits, and I am a man of my word". That is why he appealed to Sánchez's "integrity", and asked him to rule out the amnesty on independence process prosecutions which, as he put it, is not "acceptable neither ethically nor legally", besides proposing the creation of the crime of institutional disloyalty and hardening that of misappropriation of funds. On the other hand, the PP's leader proposed six government pacts, among which were the renewal of the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ), reductions in personal income tax, tax reform and changes in the system for funding of Spain's autonomous communities.
The beginning of Feijóo's speech was a declaration of intentions. "The amnesty or any similar formula is an adequate instrument to overcome the Catalan conflict, but it will not be resolved definitively if we do not contemplate the right of the Catalan people to decide by means of a referendum or any equivalent or similar formula. It will not be solved definitively if we do not contemplate the right to decide of the people of Catalonia by means of a referendum or any equivalent or analogous formula. That would be enough, right?", asked Feijóo rhetorically, referring to the pro-independence message he had read out, and thus, he answered the question himself: "Well, no, I will not defend it because I have principles, limits, and I am a man of my word". In his speech, he tried to wear down Pedro Sánchez as much as possible, whom he believes has a noose around his neck - placed there by the Catalan independence movement. He recalled, "I have within my reach the votes to be Spanish prime minister" and added: "But I do not accept the price they ask me to pay".
In contrast to the PSOE, the Galician leader gave a full rejection of last year's Criminal Code reform promoted by the Socialists to satisfy the independence movement. He proposed the creation of a crime of institutional disloyalty, recovering the spirit of the sedition law, and the toughening of the misuse of funds law, as instruments "to protect the dignity of the state".
From his point of view, accepting Junts and ERC's request would be "abusing the trust of the voters and shirking duty". "I feel I represent the immense majority of Spaniards who on July 23rd voted for parties which did not include in their electoral program either amnesty or self-determination or any other equivalent or analogous formula". In the thesis he defended from the speakers' rostrum, he recalled that amnesty "is neither ethically nor legally acceptable", and insisted that "outside the Constitution there is no democracy".
Feijóo invested a lot of energy in warning the pro-independence parties against being open to agreeing with Pedro Sánchez. "What makes you think that everything which today is used to satisfy your demands will not be used against you when you no longer need them?". Specifically, he addressed the Basque Nationalist Party and Junts to remind them that people did not vote Socialist to give their parties self-determination or an amnesty, and nor did they vote the PSOE because they wanted "to apply Podemos's economic policy". He insisted on alerting these forces of the "electoral consequences of their alliances", which he described as "not very profitable". And that they are wrong to reduce their raison d'être "almost exclusively to the question of identity".
Calls for the PSOE to rectify and Feijóo's loneliness.
This is the framework which Feijóo followed to convey that Pedro Sánchez is succumbing to a position of "inequality among Spaniards". He even referred to all former Spanish PMs and previous PSOE general secretaries who, he said, would never accept the pro-independence proposal: Adolfo Suárez, Felipe González, José María Aznar, Mariano Rajoy and even José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero. "All our predecessors would have answered the same way because what the independence movement proposes is a legal aberration".
Despite not making any public calls for disobedience or turncoats, the PP's leader appealed to the dissatisfied Socialists by the Spanish prime minister's "disdain" and, at this point, simply said that the PSOE's fractious are not "alone". "Your effort will not be in vain", he declared.
The message aims to highlight Sánchez's obstinacy to stay in power. In fact, he believes there is still time for the PSOE and the PP to reach an agreement, and regretted "the lack of communication" between the two big Spanish parties, defending that it would be "logical" for them to understand each other in order to reach "big agreements" in democracy. To the PSOE and the rest of the parties, including the nationalists, he offered a PP solo government which "leaves blocks and blockages behind", which "guarantees the country's stability" and tackles "a program of reforms" which would crystallize in six great government pacts.
The PP's offer has a more than obvious limitation, and this was made clear to everyone. Feijóo remained stuck in the 172 votes, provided by his party, Vox, Coalición Canaria and Unión del Pueblo Navarro. He thanked the far-right, "in spite of our discrepancies", for not conditioning their votes "to their presence in the government".
Feijóo's offer: six major government pacts
In line with his offer during the round of contacts, Feijóo offered a PP solo government based on six major government pacts which address a reform program. Among them, he proposed the renewal of the CGPJ be implemented, at the same time as a law to reform the election model is registered in Congress: "In the new law we must assume the total shutdown of the swinging doors between the executive and the judiciary, and guarantee the absolute independence of the Attorney General's Office".
In the economic field, the Galician leader opted for taking decisions in favour of the families with greater difficulties and, according to his proposal, the priority is to "reduce income tax for the low and middle incomes" to compensate the rise of inflation and to extend "temporarily" the reduction of the VAT on meat, fish and canned food". At the same time, he also put on the table aid to families, a tax reform and changes in the autonomic financing system.