Government Refuses To Make Public The Report Of Council Of State

March 10, 2021

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First control session to the Government of the year after the long Christmas hiatus. The climate of confrontation continues to dominate in the Chamber and is now exacerbated by the imminent appointment with the polls in Catalonia .

In the blue bank, new positions and a face that opens. Salvador Illa de Sanidad has left and his place is occupied by Carolina Darias ; The first secretary of the PSC , Miquel Iceta , now sits on the seat of the Ministry of Territorial Policy .

The changes, however, do not affect the relationship between the Government and the first opposition party, which is still one of head-on collisions. Pablo Casado has reviewed the last weeks of the pandemic and has accused Pedro Sánchez of leaving burned ground in his wake, “setting everything on fire” and “destroying all institutional counterweights.”

The leader of the PP has accused the Prime Minister of hiding from Parliament the report prepared by the Council of State on the distribution of European funds .

The popular ones affirm that the Government has “torn pages” of a report whose complete content declared like “reserved”. A “mutilation” that coincides, according to the PP, with those passages in which the high advisory body calls into question the method of distribution of funds devised by Moncloa .

In short, the Executive withdrew from Parliament the opinion of the Council of State, an opinion that is mandatory for bills and decrees but is not binding, since the Government may or may not follow the criteria set forth by the advisory body .

In this case, however, and regardless of whether the Government decides not to follow the Council’s recommendations, the opinion of this body is especially important given the misgivings that Sánchez’s decision has aroused among political forces and in the Autonomous Communities. to fully centralize the distribution of money without clearly providing the criteria to be followed for its allocation and distribution.

The report, for the moment, has not been made public and the popular ones already warn that the government maneuver may overturn the decree of funds approved last week thanks to the abstention of Vox . “This is the first time that this has been done and it is a scandal that can annul the decree and weaken our international credibility,” the opposition leader warned.

The president has avoided responding to Casado’s accusations. He has not said a single word about the Council’s report. Neither have the first vice president, Carmen Calvo , nor the second vice president, Pablo Iglesias , nor the third vice president, Nadia Calviño . The Government has kept absolute silence but has not denied the popular accusation .

Executive sources have assured afterwards that they have no intention of making this report public, that they will do so when it seems “appropriate.” Their only commitment is that they will attend to the Citizens’ request , registered yesterday in the Chamber, to deliver the document. But in no case immediately but in the course of this request.

They explain that, contrary to what the PP suggests, no royal decree law is processed in Congress with the report of the State Council. It has never happened, not even when the popular ruled . “They are lying”. However, the Government does not deny that this opinion calls into question the procedure for managing EU funds promoted by the Executive – which leaves all decision-making power in the hands of the Presidency. But they maintain that they are under no obligation to heed all your suggestions.

Some of them were incorporated into the royal decree law itself, at the time of its drafting. The Executive confirms that there are textual parts of this report from the Council of State but that it is not obliged to incorporate all its details. It is the usual practice before pronouncements that are not binding on the Government. The State Council constantly issues reports and some are taken into account and others are not, they indicate.

Without offering more details on what reproaches have been made to the Executive from this advisory body, the Government remains with that the report of the European Commission yes “was extraordinarily positive”. “The reform that Spain has made seems very good to them and this is the most important thing.”

They accuse the PP of raising it as a legal issue, when, according to Executive sources, this controversy is just an attempt to divert attention to the fact that last week they voted against this royal decree law that the Government saved in extremis with the Vox abstention.

These explanations have come after the control session. In his speech, Sánchez has only replied to the opposition leader, crossing out his “bad shadow” and has regretted that the PP criticizes one thing and the opposite with respect to all the issues, but has not responded to his accusation.

“There is no one who understands him,” he assured before reproaching him that even Santiago Abascal , the leader of Vox, gave him lessons of responsibility, allowing with his abstention the approval of the decree of funds. “Stop provocation and confrontation and make useful opposition.”

Oliver Stone

From television to the internet, Oliver switched his journey in digital media with the Highview Herald. After serving as a freelance journalist for popular media properties, he currently contributes his experience for Highview Herald by writing on variety of trending topics.