In a turn of enormous importance for Spanish politics Pablo Casado this Thursday rejected the motion of censure presented by Vox and placed his formation the Popular Party in the place that best suits Spanish politics that of a firm rejection of the postulates of the extreme right and a clear commitment to moderation
Never until now has Casado so openly criticized the positions of the party led by Santiago Abascal thanks to whose support he governs in the communities of Andalusia Madrid and Murcia and was right in his rejection of the obscurantist and radical ideology of Vox
The President of the Government Pedro Sánchez was also right when he announced in the hemicycle a halt in his illadvised attempt to reform the General Council of the Judiciary to give a new opportunity to dialogue
Voxs motion of censure against the Sánchez government had put Casado in an uncomfortable position
The farright formation incapable of formulating anything remotely comparable to a government program took advantage of the speakers of Parliament to rebroadcast its tremendous speech touching the emotional springs of that large part of the citizenry that is broken and touched by the devastating consequences of the pandemic responsibility in part of different Administrations of the State as a whole and to position the PP as a formation incapable of responding to a government that it presented as the worst in the last 80 years
It is a speech that in an atmosphere of intense polarization pleases a large part of the conservative electorate
The leader of the PP however chose the correct path recovering for its formation the will to be a State party and what this means not contributing to the gratuitous wear of the institutions that this motion represented isolating the farright ideology and vindicating the value of the Transition and the 1978 Constitution as pivots around which the politics of the coming years must continue to revolve
In a brilliant speech he crossed out the motion as a medieval fair and stressed that he did not intend to follow the extreme right in the construction of that Cainite Spain that has led the country to its worst abysses
He vindicated the PP as a calm force reformist defender of plurality and tolerance the free market and the autonomous state which wants a strong Europe
The condemnation of the extreme positions of Vox by the PP redraws the Spanish political map and opens a window to new possibilities although the difficulties remain enormous
Casado seemed to establish in his speech an equidistance in his rejection of Abascal and Pedro Sánchez which shows that saying no to the extreme right does not automatically facilitate the lowering of drawbridges to the other side of the political spectrum
But there is a chance To things Casado said remembering Ortega Then President Sánchez invited him to negotiate the renewal of the Judiciary To things thats what its all about its what Spain needs
With pragmatism without ideological prejudices The great step taken in the Cortes cannot remain in a brilliant speech now it is time to face the facts
The urgent measures necessary to combat the pandemic the strengthening of institutions the essential dialogue on the way out of the economic crisis the General Budgets this is where the scope of the PPs turn will be seen
An opportunity opens up and the government coalition is obviously called upon to do its part
A path to better politics has suddenly been opened It should be explored with loyalty and determination Spain needs it
