The PSOE to Allow Debate

Lets see how the usual suspects spin this one.

I'm sure that right about now the members of the PP are throwing a hissy fit.

The PSOE is to allow a debate on the Ibarretxe Plan, and at least they show more courage and more political will than Aznar and his underlings, including Aznar's puppet, Mariano Rajoy.

No more threats, they do not fit in modern Europe.

Here is the note that appeared at Berria:

PSOE says Spanish Parliament’s Presiding Committee will allow debate

The Spanish Socialists have reiterated their intention to vote against the Basque Autonomous Community Parliament’s Proposal in a plenary session

Editorial Staff – DONOSTIA (San Sebastian)

The New Statute Proposal passed by the Parliament of the BAC-Basque Autonomous Community will, with the approval of the Presiding Committee of Congress (lower chamber of the Spanish Parliament), get as far as a plenary session as long as it “satisfies all the formal conditions”. This is what Diego Lopez-Garrido, the PSOE’s General Secretary, said in parliament yesterday. So he confirmed yesterday that the socialists in the Parliamentary Presiding Committee would be voting in favour of allowing the BAC Parliament’s proposal to proceed. “Voting against would hamper debate; and we are not in the least bit afraid of that debate,” he pointed out.

In an interview given to El País newspaper last Sunday the Spanish Prime Minister, Jose Luis Rodriguez-Zapatero, indicated what the PSOE’s attitude would be. He ruled out any chance of negotiations between the BAC Government and the Spanish Government and said that the debate on it would take place in Parliament with the result that the proposal would be rejected thanks to the votes against of the PSOE and the PP.

Lopez-Garrido pointed out yesterday that “the Presiding Committee of Congress is not the Constitutional Court and does not have to examine the content of the proposal”. So the BAC Parliament’s Proposal will not have any problems getting the green light from the Committee. It will have the votes in favour of the PSOE (3), the CiU (1) and the IU (1), even though the four PP members of the Committee will be voting against.

Garrido did, however, criticise the BAC Parliament’s Proposal and the attitude of Juan Jose Ibarretxe, the Lehendakari (President) of the BAC. He pointed out that there could be no negotiation on the Proposal and that consensus had to be achieved in the BAC. “What the Lehendakari cannot solve in Euskadi cannot be solved in the [Spanish] State,” he said.

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