“Instrumental” motion of censure?

The relations between Junts and the President of the Government do not seem to be on the right track. Puigdemont – it is said – is calculating to break with Sánchez in view of the fact that his demands are not progressing adequately: Catalan in the EU, transfer of powers in emigration… and also because he does not want to support a government weighed down by corruption.

For this reason, balloon probes are beginning to be launched, such as the one related to the instrumental motion that Junts would present together with the PP and Vox with an independent candidate. They have spread the name of Miquel Roca, something that seems not to be confirmed.

The balloon probe does not seem to have much chance of succeeding, because although the Politics makes strange bedfellows, as Manuel Fraga said, it is hardly credible that this proposal will be carried out as it materializes. In a casual way, the slogan could be recovered: Tamames for President!, which was already subject to a vote of no confidence in March 2023.

The so-called “motion of censure” instrumental” implies the possibility of presenting a motion of censure with the sole purpose of calling elections, excluding the substance of the motion of constructive censure, that is, the need to present a candidate for the presidency of the government, who must present his government program, in accordance with the provisions of the Regulations of the Congress of Deputies.

Put in understandable terms, the instrumental motion of censure is in a certain sense a fraud of law, since in our parliamentary system of government, the opposition censures the government by replacing it through the motion of constructive censure. This figure brought from the German Constitution of 1949 (LFB) is intendedwas in Germany and Spain, to consolidate a parliamentarism that avoidedhandle government instability. Although it is true that in Germany the motion of “no confidence” has been used both in the times of Chancellor Helmut Kohl and the last socialist chancellor Scholz to directly call elections, which is not what is proposed now.

It is true that Sánchez arrived at La Monclo seven years ago through an “instrumental” motion of censure against Rajoy, with the purpose of calling elections, which he did not comply with. He remained in power until he considered it appropriate to call them. Quite the opposite of what is currently intendedas they say. For this reason, the motion under the cry of today “Sanchez yes” either “Sanchez no.“remembers of Rajoy in 2018 or looking for historical references, that of the Alfonsine Restoration at the beginning of the 20th century, when with the cry of “Maura yes/Maura no”, the head of the prime minister was requested so that the Monarch granted the Decree to dissolve the chambers. Today this is not possible.

We live in times of political instability derived from the elections of July 2023 and the politically unbreathable environment, after the cases of Abalos, Koldo and Cerdán, which have made people talk about politics in almost slum terms.

Political parties, like humans sometimes, do not learn from past mistakes. It seems that, like other cases of corruption by front companies, Filesa, Malesa and Time-Export, which between 1988 and 1990 significant amounts of money entered to the PSOE for advisory studieswhich were never made or the most recent of the exemplary Sentence of the Gürtel, they would have vaccinated themselves against this type of corruption. But that is not the case and for that reason Sánchez, if the serious facts that we know today are proven, will fall.

However, it does not seem that the discussions around the possible instrumental motion will prosper. Rather, it is interpreted as a kind of wanting to force Sánchez to give up on his demands, as the PNV also does to take advantage of a parliamentary situation that will hardly be repeated.

A few years ago few analysts would have maintained that a government without the capacity to have general state budgets approved in its almost three years of government could continue governing. But the rules of the promised “change” have been replaced by being able to stay in power at any price:

For all these reasons, perhaps once the instrumental motion of censure has been ruled out at least in the near future, it makes more sense to talk about super election Sunday of March 2026where four regional elections may or may not coincide and who knows if the general ones.

Let’s hope that next year’s electoral carousel will serve to give some stability to the regional governments and in the case of the general elections, form a new majority that wants to govern the entire country.

In the almost coming month of November, important judicial events will take place, such as the trial against the State Attorney General and the possible clarification of corruption cases. It is early, however, to draw conclusions. As Giulio Andreotti said, what really wears you out is being in the opposition and for this reason, President Sánchez wants to continue in Moncloa. Wait and see.