The Government appreciates Feijóo's "willingness" and points to the "lack of specifics and no documentation" provided by the People's Party leader

Moncloa Palace, Madrid

In an appearance at Moncloa Palace, Rodríguez stressed that during the meeting, which was held at the initiative of the president of the Government of Spain, both sides expressed their willingness to maintain "permanent dialogue". In this sense, she insisted on the "clear commitment of the president of the Government of Spain to maintain a constant relationship with the main opposition party".

The spokesperson explained that the head of the Executive presented Feijóo with a document containing 11 points which was worked on and which guided the meeting, in the absence of other written documentation provided by the president of the People's Party. He referred to three aspects raised in this document that were addressed during the meeting: the War Response Plan, matters that have been left pending to be taken up again in time, such as the renewal of the General Council of the Judiciary and the Constitutional Court, and the Pact against Sex-based Violence.

War response plan

Isabel Rodríguez stressed that the War Response Plan is an "open" and "dynamic" plan in which the Government has worked with social agents, the sectors particularly affected, the regional governments and local entities, and in which the political parties have also participated.

It is therefore "a plan for everyone, a national plan to combat Putin's war and its economic consequences", she pointed out, which will have to be validated by the Lower House of Parliament, and which includes direct aid for the sectors affected, tax cuts in the energy sector and will also benefit the vast majority of Spaniards via a reduction in fuel prices.

In this sense, the Government spokesperson pointed out that the PP's proposal to lower taxes - "stated" but "not specified" by Feijóo - "should not condition the support of the main opposition party for this plan, because if it did, it would not be a proposal, but an imposition".

Renewal of the CGPJ and the TC

The spokesperson also referred to the PP leader's "favourable disposition" to "return to basic constitutional consensus", allowing the renewal of the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) - which has been blocked for more than three years by the PP - and the Constitutional Court (TC). "We believe that this is an area in which it will be easy for the People's Party to return to the consensus from which it should never have left," stressed Isabel Rodríguez, who said that the Government and the PP have "given themselves time" to substantiate the possibility of this agreement, with 12 June being the "deadline" for achieving it in both bodies.

Similarly, the Government has set the date of 20 April as the date for the reactivation of the process to eliminate the 'voto rogado', which would facilitate the political participation of Spaniards living abroad, and whose reform bill is currently undergoing amendments in the Constitutional Commission of the Lower House of Parliament.

In addition to this issue, he called for support for the reform of article 49 of the Spanish Constitution, in order to "name disability correctly", leaving behind "a rejection that we never understood". On these two questions the leader of the opposition has yet to give an answer.

At this point, the president of the Government of Spain also called on the leader of the opposition for the return of the People's Party to the Anti-turncoat Pact. "It would be important for them to return to this path, which has also been a state pact, and which undoubtedly improves the quality of democracy in our country," said Rodríguez.

"In short, these are matters of basic consensus where, by the way, there is a broad parliamentary majority that is already supporting them, and only the presence of the PP is missing," he added.

State Pact against sex-based violence

The Government spokesperson gave special importance to the issue of the State Pact against Sex-based Violence; "a pact of all political groups, with the exception of Vox, which undoubtedly aims to combat one of the main scourges that exist today in our society", and which today "is being called into question" by the ultra-right when it attempts to impose concepts such as domestic violence.

"We believe that accepting this framework - these theses - calls into question the Pact on Sex-based Violence itself, and we are confident that Feijóo will be forceful" when it comes to "rejecting" and not taking "a single step backwards" in defending the existing State Pact in this area, said Rodríguez.

"It is a matter of emphatically reaffirming which side Mr Feijóo is on: Do we want to fight those who kill their wives because they are women or those who kill their children to harm their wives, or do we want to be on the side of those who say that there is no sex-based discrimination, who question women's rights and progress and who use euphemisms for this, such as a new law on domestic violence," she asked.

"That is what the Government is asking of Feijóo, that as the main leader of the opposition he should say which side he is on: the side of Vox or on the side of the vast majority of political groups in this country that are fighting this scourge," she concluded.

Non official translation