The regional MP and deputy spokesperson of the Partido Popular, Luis Venta, launched into this Thursday against the “silence” of the president of the Principality, Adrián Barbón, after the “act of defiance and blackmail” by the minister Ovidio Zapico (IU), who announced that he will not submit to the control of the General Meeting of the Principality.
Venta recalled the incident that took place in the plenary session last Tuesday, when Ovidio Zapico left the hemicycle after stating that he would suspend indefinitely his attendance at parliamentary control sessions while the opposition groups continue to block the processing of a housing law.
After the meeting of the Parliament’s Board of Spokespersons, in which the report by the chamber’s legal counsel on Zapico’s conduct was made public, Luis Venta stated that “we can say that thing about the birds shooting at the shotguns, that is, it is the Government that wants to control the chamber and not the chamber, in its constitutional right to control the Government.”
“They talk about democracy, but they assault it brazenly and I would say with arrogance; the declaration of defiance by a minister not to submit to parliamentary control, as he has said in the plenary session last Tuesday and as he has ratified by means of a written statement addressed to the president of this General Meeting, is characteristic of authoritarian regimes, and for that reason we speak of a socialist regime in Asturias that lasts 40 years,” stated the Partido Popular leader.
Venta stressed that the chamber’s legal report makes it clear that Barbón is a “jointly responsible party” in his capacity as president: “It is the president who has to give an account and who has the obligation to make a statement in response to an attack that falls under this General Meeting and that stems from a collegial Council of Government, by disavowing a minister in defiance.”
“What does Barbón fear? Why doesn’t he disavow Zapico? Is he afraid that whoever disavows him is the minister himself by not heeding that alleged position of legality of his Government?” Venta questioned, insisting that the head of the Asturian Executive must clarify his stance.
The Partido Popular parliamentarian added that the chamber’s legal services describe, in their report, Zapico’s attitude as a measure of pressure, and also criticized that the left-wing groups overthrew a written statement submitted by the Partido Popular against the minister’s actions.