The PSC will avoid today, for the third time, the disapproval in the Parliament of the controversial Minister of Education Josep González Cambray. Those of Salvador Illa will not accept the amendment presented by En Comú Podem and the CUP demanding that parliamentary censorship of the socialist motion on the vocational training system for next year, so it will not even be voted on in the plenary session this Thursday. Once again, the Socialists avoid drawing blood from the half-fallen tree, also for their own convenience, to avoid an open clash with ERC that would result in more harm than good.
The PSC-Units parliamentary group justifies the decision not to facilitate the disapproval of the Minister in the need for the person in charge of Education to “do his homework” before the end of the course. Until then, Cambray must take charge of a complicated situation in the educational field, with successive strikes, the anger of the unions and imminent situations to be clarified for September.
The Socialists believe that at the end of the academic year it will be time to evaluate Cambray’s performance and, depending on his management, they reserve the possibility of being the ones to promote a parliamentary disapproval – it would be the fourth attempt – which may be the final .
In Comú Podem and the CUP they have an interest in failing the minister for “his inability to resolve the conflict that exists today with the educational community.” It’s not the first time they’ve tried. The first came from Ciudadanos at the beginning of March, through a motion with which they intended to censor him for “the way in which he has led the establishment of the new school calendar for the 2022-2023 academic year.” The second came at the beginning April, through another motion, this time from the CUP, which curiously voted on the first one.
Neither of them came out ahead thanks to the PSC, who insisted a month ago on the need for the situation to be reversed and for the president of the Government, Pere Aragonès, to get involved in the “crisis” that according to the socialists Cambray has caused.
Now, the Socialists point out, as on previous occasions, that there are “more than enough reasons” to censure the Minister, but that “it is useless” to disapprove when “what we want is to summon him to reach agreements before the end of the course with the educational community.
Cambray has behind him “months of conflict” in which “he has not been able” to straighten out the situation that began with the controversial announcement of the advancement of the school year. But the situation has been entangled until last week, when the government official decided to “break the negotiation” with the unions. The PSC believes that this decision was unwise, but they believe that there is still time to reach agreements with the educational community to clarify what will happen in September, what will be offered in the afternoons of the first week of the course, to reverse cuts, to guarantee the equity in the calendar, in the field of FP, and on the free P2, which the Government wants the municipalities to assume.
In addition, the socialists indicate a formal question. The motion on which the Commons and the CUP presented the disapproval amendment deals with the FP and is formulated with a “constructive spirit”, they point out in the PSC. “It is a motion that what you want is to promote professional training, therefore it is not the place, nor the time to do it.”
Cambray “has to change his attitude. Even if it is to avoid new strikes, he should sit down with the unions again… But we will see. If at the end of the course he has not met the expectations to guarantee a good start to the next one, we will be the ones who we will promote the disapproval”, they warn in the PSC.
But the truth is that there are underlying reasons not to fail the Minister. Socialists and Republicans maintain a parliamentary non-aggression pact that has made it possible to stop the appearances of respective defendants for corruption crimes, including several of those accused in the case of the Consell Esportiu de L’Hospitalet, and would complicate the policy of outstretched hand and agreements that the socialists have been braiding with the groups of the Government, among them the renewal of positions or the consensus on Catalan.
In addition, the political panorama colored by the cases of espionage against pro-independence leaders advises not to further complicate relations with ERC, due to the consequences it may have for the
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