The PP accuses Sánchez of "caging" Robles after postponing her appearance for Ceuta in the Senate

The Popular Party has accused Pedro Sánchez of "caging" Margarita Robles after the Minister of Defense postponed her appearance in the Senate regarding the Ceuta crisis. Génova maintains that Moncloa provoked the change in stance of the head of Defense, whose intervention had been set for next Tuesday, August 18.

Robles sent a new letter this Thursday to the President of the Senate, Pedro Rollán, to inform him that she needs "more time" to prepare the appearance "with a minimum of rigor and detail". The minister maintains her willingness to attend the Defense Committee, although she requests to do so during the ordinary session period, which will begin in September.

The exchange of letters began when Robles alleged that it was impossible for her to appear this Thursday the 13th because she had to visit the Operations Command at the Retamares base. In that first communication, she expressed her "full willingness" to find another date compatible with her official commitments. After conversations between the offices of Robles and Rollán, the Senate moved the session to Tuesday the 18th at 11:00 a.m.

The PP speaks of a non-appearance decided by Moncloa

"We are facing the chronicle of an announced non-appearance," sources from the PP have stated. The popular party assures that they expected the minister to be "invited" by Moncloa to rectify and consider that the argument used to request a new postponement responds to the common strategy of the Executive regarding the summonses of the Upper House.

Génova has recovered the private messages exchanged between Sánchez and former minister José Luis Ábalos in which the president referred to Robles as "la pájara". Based on that expression, the party maintains that Sánchez "has decided to cage his minister" after she had shown in writing her willingness to attend the Senate.

Alberto Núñez Feijóo's party also rejects presenting Robles as someone harmed by the decision. The PP places her as "one more pawn at the service of Sanchismo" and considers that her appearance would have placed Marlaska, Albares, and Bolaños in a delicate position. The three ministers have ruled out attending the extraordinary committees convened by the popular party during August.

"If Robles had given those explanations, she would have put Marlaska, Albares, and Bolaños in a serious compromise," they point out from Génova. The popular party members add that the ministers had decided from the beginning to avoid the Senate so as not to bother "El UNO", a designation used in UCO reports to refer to Sánchez.

The PP spokesperson in Congress, Ester Muñoz, summarized her party's reaction with a brief message addressed to the minister. "She wasn't so brave," she wrote alongside the information about the postponement.

An appearance that remains on the Senate agenda

The summons still appears on the official Senate agenda for August 18 at 11:00 a.m. The request was registered by the popular spokesperson, Alicia García, along with 137 other senators, and demands that Robles report on the mission entrusted to the Armed Forces during the Ceuta crisis.

The confrontation also has an institutional dimension. Article 110 of the Constitution establishes that the Chambers and their committees can demand the presence of government members, while Article 73 allows extraordinary sessions to be held outside ordinary periods when requested by an absolute majority of a Chamber. The PP has that majority in the Senate.

The Executive maintains that its ministers will appear in Congress at the end of August and argues that the emergency still requires their presence on the ground. Marlaska already left the chair reserved for him in the Interior Committee empty this Wednesday, while Albares remains summoned on Monday the 17th before the Foreign Affairs Committee.

Robles has defended that she needs to be "precise and exhaustive" after her visit to Ceuta and the meetings held with the deployed military personnel. The Senate must now decide whether to maintain Tuesday's committee despite the minister's announced absence or definitively postpone her explanations until September.