The Diplomat
Spanish PP MEPs will not attend the meeting they have been called for tomorrow, Monday, in Strasbourg, by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, if the President of the party, Alberto Nuñez Feijóo, is not received by the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, to discuss the upcoming Spanish Presidency of the European Union.
This is clear from a letter sent to Albares by the PP spokesperson in the European Parliament, Dolors Monserrat, in which she thanks him for the invitation to the meeting, but says that before “it would have been desirable” that the head of the Executive “had addressed the main opposition party in Spain to raise the main axes and objectives of the next Presidency of the EU in the second half of 2023 and thus be able, from dialogue, to negotiate the corresponding proposals for such an important period, as we have always offered”.
Montserrat added that “true politics” demands respect for all political actors, “especially when it is a party that represents millions of Spaniards”. She therefore made the attendance of the PP MEPs at the meeting with Albares conditional on Moncloa informing Feijóo of the objectives of the Spanish Presidency of the EU.
“We would therefore be delighted to hear about your approach once your proposal has been discussed in a previous meeting between the President of the Government and the President of the main opposition party. In order to balance agendas, we are waiting for you to let us know when you plan to hold this meeting and we will be available to meet afterwards,” the MEP stressed.
She went on to say that the PP is “a profoundly pro-European party, as it has demonstrated throughout its history” and concluded that it maintains “an unequivocal commitment to the Spanish Presidency of the EU, which belongs to all Spaniards and not just to the government”.
This same week from Stockholm, after meeting with the Swedish Prime Minister, Ulf Kristersson, who currently holds the rotating presidency of the EU, Feijóo complained that the Government is not informing him of the agenda of the Spanish Presidency, which will begin on 1 July.
“We ask the Spanish Prime Minister to inform the opposition and to reach a consensus with it on the major issues on the agenda of the Spanish Presidency,” said the leader of the PP, who ironically said that he had more information on the Swedish Presidency than on the Spanish Presidency.
The Ciudadanos delegation in the European Parliament, for its part, did confirm its attendance at the meeting with Albares and considered the PP’s refusal to attend “a tantrum typical of someone accustomed to privilege”, although it also criticised Sánchez for not having discussed the six months of the presidency with the leaders of the opposition.
“It is embarrassing to see Sánchez refusing to receive opposition leaders and to see PP MEPs boycotting a meeting with minister Albares. But these are the inertias of bipartisanship,” said Adrián Vázquez, the secretary general of Ciudadanos and orange MEP, in a statement.
