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Vox presents a motion of censure in Spain

Politics - March 7, 2023

The motion of censure in Spain is a tool that allows the Congress of Deputies to re-evaluate its confidence in the executive branch. Each motion of censure is a decisive test for the government, since in a parliament as fragmented as the one of the last decade, a single change of position by a parliamentary group can mean the fall of an executive. In Spain there have been five motions during its democratic era, one of them being successful: the one presented against Mariano Rajoy in 2018. The positioning of the Catalan and Basque pro-independence parties in favor of Pedro Sánchez was one of those sudden changes that brought about the political death of an executive. That motion of censure, the fourth in the history of democracy, has marked the opportunistic drift of the current executive until today.

Precisely, more than two years after the success of Pedro Sanchez, supported by the nationalist and radical left-wing parties, it is normalized that one of the governing parties is allied with those who seek to fragment the territory of the Spanish nation. Faced with this absurdity, in September 2020 VOX presented the fifth motion of censure against the leftist executive, proposing Santiago Abascal himself as candidate. The success of this motion presented by VOX depended on gathering support among the main right-wing parties and some minority support that could form a parliamentary majority. Although the mission was practically impossible, it was the moral duty that led Abascal’s party to present the proposal. A moral duty that was rejected by what would have been an essential partner for the success of the resolution: Pablo Casado’s Partido Popular. If on the one hand Abascal’s party responded to the need to confront the enemies of Spain, Casado’s party not only did not support the proposal, but positioned itself against it, as did the parties that made up the executive, leaving the right wing protected only by the representatives of VOX.

“We were clear that the main thing was democracy”.

A little more than two years later, with elections less than three months away, VOX has reiterated its moral commitment to the Spanish people by presenting the sixth motion of censure in the history of Spanish democracy. This time, presenting an independent candidate with a wide and reputable political experience: the economist Ramón Tamames. Mr. Tamames was, during the Franco regime, an active member of the Communist Party of Spain and later co-founder of Izquierda Unida, which in turn is part of Unidas Podemos coalition, currently being part of the Government with PSOE. Later, he was part of the centrist CDS party. This past of the independent candidate has raised the surprise of many Spaniards: How can an ex-communist be the candidate formed by VOX to face precisely the social communist coalition of PSOE and Unidas Podemos? The answer was given by himself in a television program few years ago: being a militant of the Communist Party of Spain in the last years of the dictatorship, as well as in the years of transition to democracy, “was the only thing there was” for a young man with political concerns who did not want to be a Francoist. Tamames himself explained how from the beginning of his militancy in the PCE he criticized Marxism-Leninism: “We were very clear that the main thing was democracy”.

Once again, and beyond the stereotypes with which the third political force in number of votes in Spain can be punished, VOX shows the coherence of a party committed to Spain and democracy. Encouraged by a moral duty, and with the need to face a government with little time to live, Abascal’s party returns to the charge with an independent candidate and waiting for any other party to share its moral commitment with the nation.