‘Nobody has done more harm to Spain in less time’: clash over Catalonia in congress

Unionist People’s Party (PP) and Ciutadans (Cs) heads accused Spanish president Pedro Sánchez of “selling the nation to those who want to destroy it” and to have negotiated with “those who carried out a coup.”

In the February 20 Spanish Congress plenary marked by the recently-called snap elections for April 28, Sánchez assessed the last eight months of his government as “positive” and “reasonable,” further promising a “socially-focused budget” if he is elected.

However, opposition PP and Cs leaders and Pablo Casado and Albert Rivera disagreed. “Nobody has done more harm to Spain in less time. You tried to sell the nation to those who want to destroy it,” said Casado, while Rivera told Sánchez: “I got into politics so we don’t have presidents like you, who govern with those that want to break my country.”

For his part, the head of Spain’s executive accused Casado of “lying” and said PP, Cs, Vox, and others who recently demonstrated in Madrid were not “protesting against pro-independence parties, but against the legitimate Spanish government.” Sánchez further responded to Rivera by calling him a “turncoat,” telling him he changed from “liberalism” to the “right wing.”