It has been two years since a no confidence motion saw the PP government of Rajoy fall and allowed Pedro Sánchez and the PSOE into La Moncloa. Today, Santiago Abascal, the leader of the right wing party VOX has announced his intention to file motion for no confidence in the current coalition government this coming September.
Abascal called the government "criminal, illegitimate and unscrupulous" and used his address to the Congress on Wednesday 29th July to challenge the other opposition parties to support the motion, especially Pablo Casado and his Partido Popular benches. The speech was met with stoney silence in the chamber. Casado made no reference to the proposal in his speech in the chamber but Teodoro García Egea, the General Secretary of the Partido Popular rejected the plan on social media "Do not count on us for diversionary manoeuvres that reinforce the PSOE". Gabriel Rufián of the ERC (The Catalan Republican Left) made the pointed observation that the motion was a challenge to the leadership of Casado rather than Sánchez.
The Prime Minister mocked Abascal, enquiring if he postponed the no confidence vote to September so he could enjoy his holidays in August. Abascal insisted the delay was to enable opposition parties to reach agreement to vote in support of the motion.
The Congress session was a debate on the latest European Union COVID "recovery package". The PP and Vox were in agreement on their criticism of the EU proposals as little more than a new "bailout" operation whilst Prime Minister Sánchez presented it as an opportunity that Spain must seize to build for a more secure future. The EU deal has enabled the budget of the bloc to go into joint debt but the small print commits to EU wide taxation to raise the money to repay the rescue loan amounts.