He recent UCO report that leaves the former socialist minister on the brink of indictment José Luis Ábalos and puts Pedro Sánchez’s Executive on the ropes, has not yet made an impact on the Government’s main partners. With the Koldo case in full boiling, Junts closes the door to supporting a hypothetical motion of censure of the PP to remove Sánchez from Moncloa for the same reason why he arrived in 2018. The encouragement of Junts also gives oxygen to the Budgets negotiated by the Government for 2025 weeks after having to withdraw the vote on the deficit path due to lack of support. So much so that PSOE and PP agree on the possibility that there will be new Budgets and the legislature will endure despite the judicial investigations into the Sánchez Government and its entourage.
Once the first dumps of the cell phones of those involved in the Koldo plot were known, the main opposition group promised lead the offensive against this “generalized scandal” of the PSOE. So it was so that Alberto Núñez Feijóo convened its management committee in an extraordinary manner on Sunday morning, four days after the first information from the Civil Guard and the information that includes an alleged statement from a businessman partner of Víctor de Aldama who claims that he took 90,000 euros in cash to the PSOE headquarters.
The PP announced that He would file a complaint before the National Court against the PSOE for irregular financing, bribery and influence peddling. Also, it would seek to portray Sánchez’s partners as urging them to a monographic debate on corruption. However, for the moment they rule out mobilizing the streets, summoning Sánchez to the investigative commission in the Senate and, above all, presenting a motion of censure against him. “Today we do not have the votes to change this Government,” the popular leader, Ana Alós, admitted this Tuesday from the national headquarters shortly after Junts left open the possibility of supporting a PP motion and even less so that it retracted it.
While Alós admitted the impossibility of the PP to shelve the Government in parliament, deputy secretary Elías Bendodo recognized in a private meeting with his people who sees it as “very possible” that the Government will obtain new Budgets. “I dare say that it is very possible that there will be Budgets (for 2025).” These words take on special relevance considering that they are said by a member of the national leadership to leaders of his party in a closed-door meeting.
However, the internal channel of the Senate mistakenly broadcast a part of said meeting in which Bendodo left open the possibility for President Pedro Sánchez to obtain the support of the same partners who already knocked down his spending ceiling once and threatened to do it again if the same proposal was presented. However, the PP assumes that Sánchez still maintains parliamentary support despite this second installment of the Koldo case and its possible ramifications.
All this has opened an escape route from the Governmentwhich in recent days has not only been cornered by the Koldo case, but also by the commutation of sentences for ETA members, the investigation by Judge Juan Carlos Peinado into Begoña Gómez or the internal battles between socialist federations. In fact, the negotiations with Junts took a backseat with the publication of the latest UCO report and have remained completely confidential since the Government and Junts decided to resume them almost a month ago.
Little is known about them since the meeting between the Secretary of Organization of the PSOE, Santos Cerdán, with Carles Puigdemont in Switzerland on September 20. Only that Junts put a first requirement on the table: distribute the deficit by three thirds between the central, regional and local Administration, which the Executive took as a maximum proposal that was rejected. However, of the few certainties that Moncloa has regarding Junts, one of them is that with Puigdemont’s “You have to travel the mountain, from the highest to the lowest“.
At this moment it is unknown where the post-convergents are on this journey, although this Tuesday they hinted that, at least, They are willing to continue going through it. Laura Borràs made it clear, who had to rectify her words in which she did not rule out supporting a PP motion of censure against Sánchez. This rectification translated into a small respite for the Government when it confirmed that, despite the Koldo case and the weakness of the Executive, Junts does not consider supporting a motion of censure against Pedro Sánchez.
Thus, with the door closed to a motion of censure and the negotiation open with Junts despite the progress of the Koldo case, the Government still retains a possible lifeline to a legislature that is collapsing at times: the Budgets for 2025.
