For the first time in years, a group of Spanish politicians got together on an issue, but they have no intentions of integrating fully. Yesterday, the PSOE and Partido Popular met to go ahead with the first stage of a constitution reform that defines the deficit in the Magna Carta through a parliamentary debate marked by anger from nationalist groups (who claim that their needs are not addressed in the letter of the bill) and a minority left that insists on referendums that give citizens the voice to vote on reforms.
The preliminary reform vote (on Friday it will be voted on definitively after groups present their amendments) was passed with 318 in favor. 168 socialists (except Antonio Gutiérrez, who voted against party lines), 148 from the PP and two from the UPN.
The two parliament members from the Canary Coalition abstained, while the PNV, ERC, IU-ICV and the rest of the Grupo Mixto voted against the reform. The CiU showed the strength of its discourse and for the first time in history, as CiU spokesperson Josep Antoni Duran I Lleida noted afterward, the 10 members of parliament voted collectively and in protest. They did not abstain, vote for nor vote against. They did nothing, literally sitting at their seats on the parliamentary floor and not pressing a single vote button.