Espinosa assures that it is not a problem for Vox in the face of the motion that Tamames has defended the 'Catalan Nation'

He accuses the PP of having an "egocentric vision" of politics by disqualifying the motion as a 'show'

MADRID, 28 Feb. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The Vox spokesman in Congress, Iván Espinosa de los Monteros, has rejected this Tuesday that the proposal made in 2017 by Ramón Tamames, his independent candidate for the motion of censure, to the former president of the Generalitat Artur Mas, to recognize the "Nation Catalana", is going to pose a credibility problem for the party.

"Well, I think not," the spokesman replied when asked, in an interview on RNE, collected by Europa Press, about the repercussion that the idea that Tamames conveyed in a letter to Mas on October 3 could have on the motion of 2017, according to 'El Mundo'.

In that letter, dated two days after the illegal referendum and the same day as King Felipe VI's speech on television in response to what had happened hours before in Catalonia, the economist suggested to Mas the recognition of the "Catalan Nation" with a "new status" to calm the tension of the independence process.

Tamames includes that letter in the book 'Where are you going, Catalonia?', published in 2014 and republished in 2018, along with letters that he also sent to the then Prime Minister, Mariano Rajoy. In addition, in the work he proposes moving the Senate to Barcelona or creating a "Ministry of Territorial Issues" in the same city, as well as the idea of ​​setting up a Federal Tax Agency, the state pooling of regional public debt or limiting to no more than 4% the limits of interregional solidarity, among other approaches.

To this, the parliamentary spokesman for Vox has come forward defending the autonomy of Tamames and his status as an "independent candidate", assuming that he has "very different" ideas from those of the party, which is something they believe - he has assured - that gives "richness" to the motion. However, he has indicated that the candidate shares an analysis of the current situation and the objective of dissolving the Parliament and calling general elections to coincide, if possible, with the municipal and regional elections on May 28.

Tamames is "a person with whom we have some substantial differences", but "however, he has an analysis or a similar reading of the current situation and what we want is for someone who does not think exactly the same way as we do, to defend the motion of censure" , Espinosa de los Monteros has maintained.

According to the spokesman, if Vox had wanted the candidate for the motion to be someone who thought "exactly the same" as the party, the chosen one would have been its leader, Santiago Pascal, as in the last one they presented, in October 2020 and also against Pedro Sanchez.

Espinosa de los Monteros has pointed out that one of the reasons for having chosen Tamames is that his ideas can coincide with those of other parties beyond Vox, in order to expand "the range of people or deputies who could vote in favour". has argued.

After recalling that Tamames "comes from the left", from the Communist Party, and that he later went through Adolfo Suárez's CDS, the spokesman has claimed that before giving an opinion and advancing the direction of the vote, it is convenient to listen to the speech.

"You have to listen to him, because people are already giving their opinion on what they are going to vote for before listening to what Professor Tamames is going to say, who may say some things in which we do not agree, but what I have no doubt is that the analysis of why we have to call elections and give back the voice to the Spanish, we share that, although there are different reasons or different points of view on certain things that are not relevant to this motion," he justified.

In this sense, Espinosa de los Monteros has criticized the "egocentric vision" of politics that, in his opinion, the PP is demonstrating by calling the motion a parliamentary 'show' and not pitching in against an "absolutely inept" government. "I feel sorry, the sensible and reasonable thing to do is to listen" before voting, he has reproached the 'popular', who have advanced that their intention is to abstain.

"Already defining in a premeditated way what they are going to vote for without even having listened to the candidate, without even having gone through the motion of censure, shows that they are thinking in partisan terms instead of thinking about Spain," he has made them ugly.

Thus, he has trusted that Tamames will make in his speech an analysis "coinciding" with that of "all" the opposition parties, in addition to the fact that what he is going to propose is only to call early elections and "save" the country "six months of suffering with this government".

And regarding the processing of the motion, the Vox spokesman explained that next Tuesday it will be qualified and will be considered received by the Table of Congress. From there, he has specified, it will be the president of the Chamber, Meritxell Batet, who decides when it will be done.

For Vox, as he has said, the date will be "very significant". "If it is soon, they will mean that the Government and the PSOE are interested in getting rid of this as soon as possible because they think that it will not be very good for them and they will want to keep it as far away from the elections as possible. On the contrary, if they let the weeks go by and they about" to May 28, it will be assumed that Sánchez believes that it can favor him, he has considered.

He has said that he believes it will be "soon", since he sees the government "not very comfortable with this situation". "They will do it as soon as possible because they are not interested in it getting closer to the elections," he predicted.