The general secretary of the PPdeG, Paula Prado, has shown herself this Thursday in favor of the president of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, promoting a motion of censure in Spain, prior to the call for general elections, when it is "feasible". However, she stressed that to take that step, it is an essential condition that "the numbers add up". "If it doesn't add up, what's the point?", she questioned.
Prado made these remarks at a press conference in which she referred to the indictment of former president José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero and underlined that "one only has to read the judicial order" to "realize that the entire Council of Ministers" led by the socialist Pedro Sánchez is "implicated".
In this context, when asked if Feijóo should file a motion of censure to try to oust the current central government, she focused on Sánchez's parliamentary support and reiterated: "If the numbers don't add up, what's the point? If it doesn't add up, what's the point?".
"What the partners who tied their future to Pedro Sánchez's will have to explain is with what face they ask for votes from citizens to say that they are different from the government they were part of," she stated, before pointing out that the political situation could change as more "documentation" from the judicial order becomes known.
"When it becomes known, perhaps the government partners will continue to change their minds and, if that moment comes, I believe that President Feijóo will not be closed off (to promoting the motion of censure) because the priority is indeed to remove this corrupt government from the institutions of Spain. And the sooner the better," she affirmed.
Therefore, she argued that, if it is "feasible" and "the numbers add up" to promote a motion of censure "to call elections," in line with what Feijóo has expressed, the Galician PP understands that citizens "deserve for the polls to open and decide which government they want to represent them."
PSOE "corrupt" and BNG "accomplice"
Prado contrasted "the respect for democracy and for service to the citizenry" that she attributes to her party with a "corrupt and decaying" PSOE and a BNG "accomplice" of Sánchez's government, which, she insisted, has José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, indicted for alleged money laundering, criminal organization, and influence peddling, as its "moral reference."
After highlighting the degree of compliance with the electoral program with which Alfonso Rueda ran in the regional elections, "of which 87% of the measures are fulfilled or underway," he has ironically commented on the "balance sheet" that the socialists could present.
"What would the PSOE talk about? The Amnesty Law, the Parador de Teruel, Ábalos, Koldo, Pedro Sánchez's wife or his brother," he pointed out sarcastically, before adding that they could also refer to Zapatero.
"We are facing the most corrupt government in the history of Spain and the BNG is also part of this history. We are witnessing the maximum degradation of the Rule of Law, the maximum degradation of a State," he defended, also lamenting the role of the PSdeG and its leader, José Ramón Gómez Besteiro.
In this regard, he recalled Besteiro's absence from the control session of the Galician Parliament this Wednesday and the audio sent to the media to express his support for the former president.
"He chose to take a trip on the AVE that stops in A Gudiña to sell as an achievement a service that his own party deteriorated, while the leader of the Vigo socialists, Abel Caballero, criticized that the AVE to Madrid stops in Santiago because time is lost," he pointed out.
He also mentioned the mayor of A Coruña, Inés Rey, who "demanded explanations by letter from her party colleague, the government sub-delegate, for the police checks of the Deportivo-Andorra match." "We are facing an increasingly broken, fragmented PSOE, very much 'guiadiños' by Mr. Sánchez from Madrid," he concluded.
"The BNG lies: it has convicted people"
Regarding the "accomplices of the BNG," Prado criticized that the national spokesperson, Ana Pontón, "tries to deceive the Galicians" when she claims that in the BNG "there is no one convicted of corruption."
"It is a lie," he emphasized, alluding to the fact that the Supreme Court "sentenced the former mayor of Melide, Socorro Cea, to one and a half years in prison and three years of disqualification for certifying water treatment plant works knowing that they had not started"; as well as the conviction for prevarication of the former councilor of the BNG of Fene, Mariela Aguilar, for "preventing the debate of a motion of censure."
He added that the BNG is "accustomed to including Pernando Barrena, convicted of belonging to the armed group ETA, on its lists for the European elections." And he ironically added: "Any day we will see them bring Moncho Reboiras posthumously."
Candidates and succession in the cities
During the appearance, Prado was asked again if she ruled out that councilors from Rueda's Government would leave the regional Executive to be candidates in the main cities. The popular leader referred to what she said the previous week, when she indicated that those who were already local presidents ratified by congress had more options.
She raised this in a scenario where the big internal unknown remains focused on Ourense. Beyond this case, Prado added that, if it is about "speculating," the PP is a "very large" party with a wide "talent pool" made up of councilors, MEPs, deputies in Congress, senators, and regional parliamentarians, among other positions.
"There is a very wide range to speculate and each and every member of the PP is in a position to take a step forward for any position for which they are prepared, logically," she concluded.