follow in crescendo’ the discomfort and concern in United We Can in Congress for the persistence of their colleagues from the Canary Islands in keeping empty the seat that belonged until last October to Alberto Rodriguezwhile they assume with surprise the attack campaign that his former deputy is dedicating to them, considering that they are turning him into a “victim” and that they are not accompanying him in his fight to recover the act of deputy. The purple formation is trying by all means to convince the leadership of the party in the Islands and the candidate herself for whom the Central Electoral Board (JEC) has issued the new parliamentary act, Patricia Mesanumber three on the list for Santa Cruz de Tenerife in the last elections, to clear up doubts about the replacement of Rodríguez, but at the same time they try to appear that they “respect” the times they want to give to carry out that process.
They actually fear that Podemos Canarias has decided not to occupy the seat until the end of the judicial processes undertaken by Rodríguez to try to recover the seat, of very improbable resolution in this legislature, with the risk that this supposes for the parliamentary majority that the Government has in the Chamber, and to move forward tight voting that may occur in the future, such as the one on the 3rd in which the coalition Executive saved the labor reform decree law due to the error in the vote of a PP deputy.
Despite the harsh criticism in recent days by Rodríguez of his former party colleagues, from whom he resigned the day after losing his parliamentary act, the leadership of the parliamentary group is avoiding responding to them and entering into open war with he. This is the attitude adopted this morning by the spokesman in Congress, Paul Echenique, and the one also maintained by the party’s official spokespersons. In any case, they combine this position with pressure to try to speed up the substitution, so far without success. Echenique affirmed yesterday that “we are doing what we can to replace that seat, but respecting the times of Podemos in the Canary Islands, which are touched and need to follow their times”, also expressing their “support for the legal strategy” of Rodríguez.
“If at this moment a seat is missing, it is not the fault of United We Can”
“If at this moment a seat is missing, it is not the fault of United We Can,” recalled the spokesman for the parliamentary group, who insists that his formation has done what it has “can to avoid that situation.” To try to join the arguments of the former deputy from Tenerife about the causes of the loss of the seat, Echenique blamed the president of Congress, Meritxell Batet, and the judge of the Supreme Court Manuel Marchenawho signed the sentence of disqualification for beating a police officer in 2014, of “snatching the record after an unfair sentence and without evidence.”
However, there are many other Podemos leaders who are demanding the immediate substitution of Rodríguezincluding the party leader herself and Minister of Social Rights and the 2030 Agenda, Ione Belarra. So has the Secretary of State for the 2030 Agenda and deputy spokesperson for United We Can in Congress, Henry Santiago, who insisting on supporting Rodríguez’s “legal battle” has expressed the “need” for the formation to recover that seat that it does not have now. He has even appealed to the JEC to “have a proactive position” and to “require” the candidates who opt for substitution to “take possession of the seat.”
JEC sources point out in this regard that Santiago’s request has no virtuality and that the electoral administration has already intervened in the only thing it can do, to issue a new act for the third candidate on the affected list, Patricia Mesa, after the formal resignation two months ago of number two, Fátima González. Only after an official pronouncement by Mesa accepting or refusing to occupy her seat, would the JEC act to summon her to deliver documentation and take office, or issue a new act for the next on the list, María del Cristo González.
In any case, the statements by the deputy spokesperson for United We Can They were the ones that provoked Rodríguez’s attacks on his former colleagues, posting on his Twitch social network to “attack and pressure the victim instead of the executioners”, referring to Batet, the PSOE and Judge Marchena, and be ratified on his way out of the purple formation because “I have no reason to continue” judging by what has happened since he was dispossessed of his seat, months in which, he assures, his former party “has lost the values and ethics that they defend so much on the street when they reach the top politics”.
