Rising discontent with institutional deterioration

Feijóo demands that Sánchez "surrender" to the public outcry against his government.

The fiasco of the Conference of Regional Presidents held last Friday in Barcelona and the demonstration organized by the Popular Party yesterday in Madrid demonstrate the breakdown of institutional normality in our country. The bridges between the government and the opposition have been shattered by the string of alleged corruption scandals within Pedro Sánchez's inner circle, in parallel with the allegations of maneuvers by members of the PSOE against judges and police officers who were investigating precisely this irregular behavior.

For all these reasons, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, leader of the PP and winner of the July 23, 2023, elections, although without a majority to govern, demanded that the Prime Minister "surrender" to the outcry expressed against him in the streets. Before some one hundred thousand people gathered in Madrid's Plaza de España, according to the organizers, he contrasted the questionable behavior of the members of the PSOE and Sumar government with "the revolution of decency" that, in his opinion, our country urgently needs, and which he pledged to lead "from the streets and from the ballot boxes."

The truth is that Sánchez has offered no explanation regarding the extremely serious accusations involving members of his family and his party. It's worth remembering that accountability is an essential precept in any democracy, and no responsible leader can turn a deaf ear to the demands of the citizens.

Hence, the statements by Socialist spokespersons, downplaying the protest called by the Popular Party, constitute a tremendous mistake. The severity of an institutional crisis like the present one is not measured by the number of protesters, but by the degree of deterioration and discredit of the institutions, an indicator that has reached worrying levels due to Sánchez's arbitrary actions.

To overcome this devastating mismanagement, Feijóo called for an end to a legislature that has been in agony for months due to the government's inability to push through any significant project outside the amnesty law imposed by the separatists, and which is trying to operate without a budget and outside Parliament, as it has done with the plan to boost defense spending. And, along with the regional leaders of his party and former Prime Ministers José María Aznar and Mariano Rajoy, he reiterated the demand they made at the regional summit to call elections immediately.