Interim Government refuse to answer questions in Parliament

ONE of the advantages of being part of an interim government is that you can choose to ignore any call to debate any matter which may be embarrassing under the guise of protocol as it is argued that an interim government is not subject to parliamentary control.

This is exactly what happened on September 27, when the interim government advised Speaker Ana Pastor that they would not be attending the Cortes that afternoon to comment on a debate as to why former Industry Minister José Manuel Soria was appointed to the World Bank and then resigned.

The interim economy minister Luis de Guindos did appear before a parliamentary enquiry on September 13 and gave his version of the matter and this was considered sufficient as far as the interim government was concerned.

Clearly, this decision did not sit well with opposition parties and Podemos leader Pablo Iglesias addressed the interim government as if it was present in the chamber as he accused it of deliberately obfuscating the reasons for the appointment whilst a Ciudadanos spokesman suggested that the non-appearance of representatives the PP interim government simply added to the parlous state in when Spanish politics languished.

PSOE representative Meritxell Batet stated that the chamber has taken a majority vote for the interim minister to appear before it and had not asked him to appear before the parliamentary commission but one of the PP members who did attend simply reminded those who were complaining that should an interim government appear before the house it would be contrary to legal precedent.