Rajoy returns to Congress incognito to recover his best speeches

Mariano Rajoy once again crossed the doors of the Congress of Deputies this Tuesday. And he did it using his usual sense of humor.. It was not an announced visit. It was not included in the forecasts. Nor in those of the Popular Party. The former president of the Government returned to the San Jerónimo palace, his natural space for decades, to attend a procedural meeting: the Lower House will publish a printed publication that compiles some of his institutional speeches.

Rajoy crossed the halls of Congress accompanied by the first vice president of the Table, Marta González, who was in charge of managing the meeting with the former popular president for the publication of his most notable speeches.. They were seen alone in the hallways, almost incognito. And the previous tenant of the Moncloa once again boasted about the tranquility of his new life. He left discreetly, with hardly any witnesses, although he is a regular at Alberto Núñez Feijóo's events.. In fact, barely two weeks have passed since his last public appearance, since he accompanied the current leader of the PP at the opening of the political course at the Soutomaior castle..

With the 40th anniversary of the Constitution as a backdrop (2018), the Congress Board – then chaired by Ana Pastor – came up with the proposal to edit some of the most substantive parliamentary speeches given by both former heads of the Executive and the Chamber, as was done in the first years of democracy, parliamentary sources explain.

The initiative aimed to continue the enormous legacy of copies edited and paid for by Congress that collect speeches by Manuel Fraga, Gabriel Cisneros, Cánovas del Castillo or Emilio Castelar, which can be consulted and purchased on the Congress website and which They also refer to public libraries. It was during the XIV Legislature, already under the majority of Pedro Sánchez's coalition government, when this seed germinated.

Rajoy willingly joined the initiative, as can the rest of the former presidents of the Government.. Five years later, the proposal has come to fruition. Parliament emphasizes that this formula does not depend on political decisions that vary depending on the color of the majority of the chamber.. It is more of an “administrative task”. Other sources from the Chamber abound, however, that these types of publications are printed “for the greater glory” of politicians, and that it is not common for someone to buy their work..

The “regulated process” consists of the Congress Board referring—without intervening—to the Technical Publications Committee of the Chamber, where the approval of the editions is resolved after debate and consultation of the Chamber's budgets.. Here four members of the Board do have seats—and a majority—but the decision on what to publish does not depend as such on the governing body of Congress..

This organization was established in 1999, but its structure was modified in 2016. Since then, the Technical Publications Committee is made up of a vice president of the Congress, who serves as president, in addition to three other members of the Board; the deputy secretary general for Parliamentary Affairs; the director of Studies, Analysis and Publications, and the head of the latter department, as stated on the website of the Lower House.

There is still no publication date for the volume that will bring together the best institutional speeches of Mariano Rajoy, although Congress sources point out that all the debates, both those carried out by the former president and those of the rest of the Chamber's authorities, “are published in the Session Diary”, based on the transcriptions of stenographers and editors or, where appropriate, the audio and video recordings of the sessions. It is, therefore, a kind of special edition that will be part of the literary history of the Lower House, like so many other volumes.

At 68 years old, Rajoy says he enjoys that tranquility that he did not enjoy as President of the Government. The infidelity of the PNV to the Galician politician allowed Sánchez to take the decisive step to Moncloa. A few months later, Rajoy returned to his position as property registrar in Santa Pola, although he managed to transfer to Paseo de la Castellana in Madrid in record time.. The former president of the Government had a commented debut as a football reporter during the World Cup in Qatar, and has not stopped participating in PP campaign events to support Feijóo in his attempts to succeed him as a tenant in the Moncloa..