Fernando González Urbaneja | Odón Elorza, socialist deputy and professional politician (councillor at the age of 24 and later mayor and deputy) gave his opinion on the unsuitability of one of the candidates for the Constitutional Court before the congressional appointments committee. An opinion that is quite widespread in public opinion; for example, in almost all national newspapers. What Mr Elorza maintains is well-founded, he says what he thinks and,…
Fernando González Urbaneja | The government has agreed on the labour counter-reform Is this news? The news was the absence of agreement, i.e. the renunciation of the agreement that made the coalition possible. The fact that the agreement is still in force is nothing new, even if a liturgy of tension is staged between the vice-presidents, resolved by the decisive decision of the boss, the resistant one. Apart from the…
Fernando González Urbaneja | The Congress will have a hearing for the 4 jurists chosen by Pedro Sánchez and Félix Bolaños (PSOE) and Pablo Casado and Teodoro García Egea (PP), managers of the two majority – necessary – parties to fill the vacant posts in the Constitutional Court. And then the MPs will vote in a disciplined manner so that the proposal gets the green light with a qualified majority…
Fernando González Urbaneja | Pedro Sánchez has promised in some ad hoc forums to repeal the labour reform, although in other forums he has argued the opposite in order to point to a revision of the Workers’ Statute taking into account the new labour frameworks of the 21st century.
Fernando González Urbaneja (La República) | The government and the electricity companies, more specifically Iberdrola and Endesa, have accepted a state of conflict. And they are acting accordingly, to the detriment of everyone else. What could have been an opportunity to cooperate for the benefit of the community has turned into a conflict of power with conflicting egos. The two major electricity companies did not participate in this week’s renewable…
Fernando González Urbaneja | Someone must have told Pablo Casado that by being a grump he does not gain political space or win more votes. This has been noticed in the week’s control session, when Sánchez was surprised by the offer to agree on the renewal of the pending institutional bodies (except for the General Council of the Judiciary). In this way, the Socialists’ accusation that the Popular Party is…
To govern is to spend. Although the end result, as Zapatero’s experience shows, leads to losing elections in a spectacular fashion, the temptation is irresistible. Zapatero handed out cheques with debt at 60% of GDP. Sánchez is doing it with levels of 140%. May Saint Rita look after his eyesight!
Fernando González Urbaneja | The latest poll published by La Vanguardia shows 39% of Catalans in favour of independence and 53% against. With these figures, it is understandable that ERC is opting for the slow road, to continue to stir up public opinion in order to achieve its goal, to reach its Ithaca. There was also a question on the language spoken at home: Spanish 41%; Catalan 29%; indistinct 30%. Everyone will draw their own conclusions, but the claim that Catalan society is unanimous or clearly in favour of the “indepes” proposals does not enjoy sufficient support. Conllevanza rather than coexistence.
Fernando González Urbaneja | Vice-president Calviño, who goes her own way, different and distant in the cabinet, congratulates herself on the growth in employment over the year. And she uses the data to devalue the INE’s estimates on the evolution of GDP during the first half of the year. The first problem we see has to do with the data: both the employment and GDP figures are very much conditioned…
Fernando González Urbaneja | In Brussels, the leaders of the European Commission do not understand, do not share, the Spanish debate on the renewal of the Council of the Judiciary. They do not say what should be done, it does not fall within their remit. However, they warn that it sounds bad, smells bad and damages the reputation of Spanish democracy. It seems this well-known and publicised opinion does not…