{"id":404611,"date":"2024-11-14T17:00:25","date_gmt":"2024-11-14T16:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2024\/11\/14\/spagna-teresa-ribera-madrid-bruxelles\/"},"modified":"2024-11-20T14:50:02","modified_gmt":"2024-11-20T13:50:02","slug":"what-is-the-ribera-case-shaking-spanish-and-european-politics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2024\/11\/14\/what-is-the-ribera-case-shaking-spanish-and-european-politics\/","title":{"rendered":"What is the “Ribera case” shaking Spanish (and European) politics"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels – For days, European politics has been in a stalemate<\/strong> as the groups that make up the Ursula 2.0 majority\u00a0are\u00a0clashing<\/a><\/span>\u00a0head-on<\/a> over the executive vice-presidencies of the next Commission<\/strong>. The battle is being fought between the Populars (EPP)<\/strong> and the Socialists (S&D)<\/strong> around the Hungarian commissioner candidate Oliv\u00e9r V\u00e1rhelyi<\/strong> (close ally of Viktor Orb\u00e1n) and two nominated executive vice presidents, the Melonian Raffaele Fitto<\/strong> and, above all, the Spanish Social Democrat Teresa Ribera<\/strong>, who has ended up in the crosshairs of the right-wingers in both Madrid and Brussels.<\/p>\n

Ribera in the eye of the storm<\/h3>\n

The epicentre of the crisis<\/strong> that is jeopardizing\u00a0the approval of the entire College<\/strong> has moved from Italy (given the opposition of European progressives to the title of executive vice president<\/a> for Fitto) to Spain, specifically to the province of Valencia<\/strong>. Teresa Ribera<\/strong>, minister of Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge as well as third vice-premier of the centre-left executive led by Pedro S\u00e1nchez<\/strong>, has ended up at the centre of the cross-attacks<\/strong> of the Partido Popular (PP)<\/strong>, which is part of the EPP, and of Vox<\/strong>\u2014the neo-Francoist formation that recently switched from the ECR\u00a0to the banner of the Patriots\u2014for its alleged responsibility<\/strong> in the flood tragedy<\/a> that struck the
\nComunidad autonoma<\/i><\/strong><\/i><\/strong><\/p>\n

last October 29, in which more than 200 people lost their lives.<\/p>\n

After being at the centre<\/a> of the audition of the Vice-President-designate<\/strong> last Tuesday (Nov. 12), the issue of responsibility for the deaths in the Comunidad Valenciana<\/i> also resurfaced during the debates in the Europarliamentary mini-plenary<\/strong> held yesterday in Brussels, in which the leaders of the PP (Dolors Montserrat<\/strong>) and Vox (Jorge Buxad\u00e9<\/strong>), among others, lashed out violently at fellow MEPs elected with PSOE, such as the S&D group leader\u00a0Iratxe Garc\u00eda P\u00e9rez<\/strong>. Esteban Gonz\u00e1lez Pons<\/strong>, another Spanish member of the EPP, denounced as “immoral<\/strong>” the fact that “the incumbent minister is about to be rewarded (with the vice-presidency of the Commission, ed) while there are still corpses to be recovered from under the mud.”<\/p>\n

\"Vox\"<\/a>
Vox delegation leader in the European Parliament, Jorge Buxad\u00e9 (photo: Philippe Buissin\/EP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The clash between the central government and the Generalitat<\/em><\/h3>\n

Political forces in the Iberian kingdom are bouncing responsibility<\/strong> off each other for the catastrophe caused by Storm Dana<\/strong>. Heavily attacking Ribera in what national media<\/a> call a “total war”<\/strong> is mainly the PP led by Alberto N\u00fa\u00f1ez Feij\u00f3o<\/strong>, the main opposition party to the Socialist government of S\u00e1nchez, who is also the majority shareholder in the Valencian regional executive<\/strong> (the Generalitat<\/i>), where it\u00a0governs together with Vox. According to the right-wingers, Ribera has failed as coordinator of the emergency response<\/strong>\u00a0and would have failed to put in place adequate prevention to limit the damage<\/strong> of climate disasters of this magnitude.<\/p>\n

But from Madrid, these accusations are rejected back to the sender, namely to Governor\u00a0<\/span>Carlos Maz\u00f3n<\/strong>\u00a0(PP), who, under the\u00a0<\/span>strong regionalist structure of the Spanish state,<\/strong>\u00a0enjoys\u00a0<\/span>broad autonomy in the management of the\u00a0<\/strong>Communidad\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0and would, therefore, be the real culprit in the mismanagement of the emergency.<\/span>\u00a0The central government fulfilled its duties promptly, Ribera and his people argue, issuing the weather alert as early as the early morning, while\u00a0it was<\/a> the Generalitat<\/i> that did not warn the population<\/strong> of the impending danger in time and did not put in place timely measures<\/strong> that would have allowed the worst to be averted.<\/p>\n

\"Valencia\"<\/a>
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro S\u00e1nchez (left) and Valencia region governor Carlos Maz\u00f3n during a meeting of the government’s crisis unit, Oct. 31, 2024 in L’Eliana (photo: Manaure Quintero\/Afp)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Future of Ribera<\/h3>\n

Now, Ribera’s political fate seems to hang by a thread, or rather by the audition before the Congreso de los diputados <\/i><\/strong>(the lower house of Madrid’s legislature) scheduled for\u00a020 November<\/a>, which she herself has requested.\u00a0There, she will submit herself to the\u00a0broadsides of the opposition<\/strong>, who do not intend to spare her anything. Above all, based on what emerges,\u00a0legal proceedings\u00a0may be initiated\u00a0<\/strong><\/span>against her.<\/span>\u00a0This is a very narrow passage and potentially explosive not only for the S\u00e1nchez government but also for the institutional transition<\/strong> underway in Brussels, where Ursula von der Leyen<\/strong> is trying to secure the green light for her new Commission, currently in the balance precisely because of the clash\u00a0between the Populars and Socialists<\/strong> in the EU Parliament.<\/p>\n

Partido Popular and the EPP want the deputy premier’s head.\u00a0They<\/a><\/span>\u00a0asked<\/a>, as a condition for ending the clash<\/strong> that is shaking\u00a0the pro-European majority, that Ribera resign in case a national court formally indicts her<\/strong> (as well as that the progressive groups give the green light to the candidacies of Fitto and V\u00e1rhelyi<\/strong>). This entanglement puts the Spanish premier in a particularly delicate situation. S\u00e1nchez cannot accept<\/strong> the demands of the PP to replace Ribera<\/strong> with an alternative profile (the PP fanned the name<\/a> of the current Minister of Agriculture, Luis Planas<\/strong>, as a replacement) so as not to give the impression of capitulation\u00a0in front of the opposition<\/strong>, implicitly admitting Ribera’s responsibilities in the Valencia disaster.<\/p>\n

\"Ursula\"<\/a>
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen (photo: Attila Kisbenedek\/Afp)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Reflections in Brussels<\/h3>\n

Vice versa, if the latter were to be indicted,\u00a0the consequences would be explosive and difficult to predict<\/strong>, but it would be unlikely for her to remain on board the EU executive. At this point, the EU game for vice-presidencies of the future executive remains deadlocked (barring unforeseen events) until at least next Wednesday<\/strong>, pending what happens to the Madrid-based minister. Should\u00a0the Spanish judiciary indeed activate, the aftermath could drag on even longer.<\/p>\n

For now, S\u00e1nchez is holding his ground<\/strong>\u00a0and does not intend to\u00a0<\/a>touch\u00a0<\/a>his<\/span>\u00a0deputy, strengthened by\u00a0the substantial support that von der Leyen herself is granting Ribera<\/strong>. Commission spokesman Eric Mamer<\/strong> reiterated yesterday that “the president has given confidence to all the commissioner candidates, and the process for their confirmation is ongoing” and that the Berlaymont does not meddle in the domestic affairs of member states<\/strong>. But it is by no means a foregone conclusion that the new College will take office on Dec. 1 (as in the German People’s Party’s plans), as it is not certain that the vote of confidence by the EU Parliament<\/strong> could come on Nov. 27 during the next plenary session in Strasbourg, as hoped for by House Speaker Roberta Metsola<\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The socialist government in Madrid and the centre-right regional administration of the Valencia region are blaming each other for the floods that devastated the Autonomous Community in late October. The Iberian tug-of-war is also sending the EU institutions in Brussels into a tailspin, holding up the approval of the next Commission<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7876,"featured_media":404564,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"source_name":"","source_url":"","via_name":"","via_url":"","override_template":"0","override":[{"template":"1","single_blog_custom":"","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_share_counter":"0","show_view_counter":"0","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"override_image_size":"0","image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post":"0","trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post":"0","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","sponsored_post_name":"","sponsored_post_url":"","sponsored_post_logo_enable":"0","sponsored_post_logo":"","sponsored_post_desc":"","disable_ad":"0"},"jnews_primary_category":{"id":"","hide":""},"jnews_override_counter":{"override_view_counter":"0","view_counter_number":"0","override_share_counter":"0","share_counter_number":"0","override_like_counter":"0","like_counter_number":"0","override_dislike_counter":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25681],"tags":[25747,29675,25871,28890,28891,29036],"class_list":["post-404611","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-alberto-nunez-feijoo-en","tag-popular-party-en","tag-onpsoe","tag-teresa-ribera-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404611","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7876"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=404611"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404611\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":404661,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404611\/revisions\/404661"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/404564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=404611"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=404611"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=404611"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}