A resounding defeat closes the political year

The rejection by its partners of the decree to prevent blackouts reflects the government's weakness.

Perhaps the only possible corollary to this political course of events was the resounding parliamentary defeat suffered yesterday by Pedro Sánchez's government in Congress over the decree of measures to reinforce the electricity system following the massive blackout of April 28. The outbreak of the alleged corruption case involving public works concessions, for which the last two PSOE organizational secretaries—both appointed by the president of the Executive and his closest confidants—are being investigated, has led several of his parliamentary partners to try to distance themselves, leaving the "progressive majority" in disarray.

And the most effective way to do so is to not support, or even vote against, the initiatives proposed by the Government to the House, even if they have the support of the affected sectors, as was the case with the so-called anti-blackout decree. Following parliamentary rejection, investments by electricity companies in renewable installations, grid deployment, and decarbonization projects have been left up in the air.

The announcements by Podemos, the BNG (National Liberation Front), and Junts during the parliamentary debate that they would vote against the decree prompted Moncloa to seek last-minute support from the PP. However, it did so after attempting to link the party's current leadership with former Finance Minister Cristóbal Montoro, after the latter was indicted by a Tarragona judge for taking advantage of that position to amend laws to benefit companies that were clients of his former firm. Under these circumstances, and considering that Sánchez—absent from the last plenary session of the current session due to his trip to Chile, Uruguay, and Paraguay—has not offered sufficient explanations regarding the Cerdán case, the PP felt it was impossible to give the Executive any breathing space.

The disavowal could have been greater if he had not withdrawn in recent days, given the lack of support to push them through, two other key decrees that were to be submitted to Parliament for approval: the reduction in working hours promoted by Yolanda Díaz and the reform of access to the judiciary and prosecutorial professions promoted by Félix Bolaños. The government, incapable of passing the budget or any initiative not endorsed by the separatists, is hostage to pacts with radical groups interested only in their separatist agenda, and a victim of the harmful polarization it has fostered since the beginning of the term.