Spanish PM Sánchez asks to postpone European Council presidency speech

Опубликовано: Friday, 02 June 2023 13:54

Questions were raised as to whether it made sense for the Socialist to lay out his plans before a vote that could see him lose office.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez on Friday asked the European Parliament to postpone a July 13 address in which he was set to present his country’s priorities for its stint in the presidency of the Council of the EU to the plenary chamber in Strasbourg.

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After his Socialist party suffered heavy losses across Spain in regional and municipal elections last week, Sánchez called a snap election for July 23 — just three weeks after Madrid takes over the six-month rotating Council presidency on July 1.

With the center-right Popular Party leading in the polls ahead of the vote, questions were raised as to whether it made sense for Sánchez to lay out his plans for the presidency less than two weeks before a vote that could see him lose office.

In a letter to European Parliament President Roberta Metsola on Friday, revealed by POLITICO’s Brussels Playbook, European People’s Party chief Manfred Weber implied Alberto Núñez-Feijoo, the leader of Spain’s Popular Party, would inevitably win the Spanish election.

Weber asked that the Spanish leader’s address to MEPs be pushed back until September — halfway through the country’s turn in the hot seat — “to allow the freshly elected Prime Minister to present the priorities of the Council outside the domestic political battles.”

Hours later, Sánchez revealed that he had already formally requested that Parliament postpone the speech.

According to La Moncloa, the government headquarters in Madrid, the request was made earlier this week, 24 hours after the prime minister called the snap election.