Política

Behind the French anger with Rajoy is the PP’s blockage of the Spain-France friendship treaty

The Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, expressed this morning his surprise at how the Popular Party is conducting its relations with Spain’s neighboring countries, particularly with France.

El Partido Popular already managed to provoke the irritation of the governments of Pedro Sánchez and Emmanuel Macron, by blocking a week ago in the Senate the friendship treaty that both leaders sealed at the Hispano-French summit held in Barcelona on January 19, 2023. And now some controversial words from former Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy – in which he pointed out that the French national football team is playing the World Cup, in his opinion, “without French players” – have the effect of lighting a match on a barrel of dynamite.

Judge Juan Carlos Peinado has requested Begoña Gómez, wife of the Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, to justify within five days that she used the passport only for the trip that the court itself had authorized, that is, to fly to the United Kingdom for her daughter’s graduation.

Reagrupement National, party of the French far-right leader Marine Le Pen, labeled former Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy as “racist” this Monday for his comments that the French national football team has “a very high level, that is true, without French players,” emphasizing that these are comments that “everyone should condemn.”

The PP has downplayed Mariano Rajoy’s words about the French national football team, which will face Spain this Tuesday in the World Cup. The former Prime Minister said on Friday that France has “a very high-level squad,” but “without French players,” words that the PP relativizes because they were written in a column in El Debate in a “sarcastic” way and “without bad intentions.”

The renewal of the financing model has returned to the forefront following the approval of the Generalitat’s budgets. The PSC and Esquerra Republicana place this issue as the next milestone and pressure Junts to support the legal reforms required by the model agreed upon by socialists and republicans earlier this year under the premise that it will provide more than 4 billion euros additional to the coffers of the Catalan administration. The post-convergence members, however, see it as insufficient and have opposed it from the start. But for now, they try to deflect and hide their cards because despite that opposition, they could facilitate its processing. “It is a rather lamentable act of cynicism that we are asked to support the financing model,” said Josep Rius, spokesperson and vice president of JxCat, on Monday regarding that pressure. “Their goal is not for us to give support, but to hold us responsible for its failure,” he added.

The Council of Ministers has admitted that the CNI spied on the phone of former CUP deputy David Fernández for almost half a year, which the secret services had not acknowledged until now. They have also admitted that the phone of former parliamentarian of the formation Carles Riera was intercepted for another two years, with authorization from the Supreme Court.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, did not hold back this morning when attacking the foreign policy line of the Popular Party (PP) and stating that they are “absolutely incapable of governing.” Commenting on the crisis triggered by the xenophobic opinion about the French team from former president Mariano Rajoy, Albares has asked the PP to stop “boycotting” Spanish foreign policy and the relationships it has with neighboring countries such as France, Morocco, or Algeria.

The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, will travel today to Almería to see firsthand the situation of the worst fire Spain has experienced in decades. He will surely do so in the company of the President of Andalusia, Juanma Moreno. Both have behaved since Friday,…