The appearances of the commission that investigates the management of vaccines start without PP, Citizens or Vox
The appearances of the investigation commission on the management of vaccines against COVID-19 in Spain start with notable absences. Congress welcomes the first speakers with marked absences this Monday. PP, Vox and Ciudadanos will not participate in the congressional commission. The reason for this 'plan' is that PSOE and United We can approve, with the support of their partners, a list of names in which neither the Minister of Health, Carolina Darias, if her predecessor, Salvador Illa, appears. Neither does the director of the Center for the Coordination of Health Alerts and Emergencies, Fernando Simón.
In the last meeting of the commission, chaired by the socialist Guillermo Meijón, the parliamentary groups put together the people they each wanted to summon to parade through the commission. However, only the appearing parties proposed by the PSOE and United We can come forward since the rest were rejected.
This decision upset both the PP and Vox and Ciudadanos to such an extent that the first two left the commission with the warning not to return as long as the two government partners persisted in the idea of not accepting names promoted by the opposition. Ciudadanos did not do so then but it has resolved not to attend the next calls of this body after it has become clear that the commission will not investigate the public and political officials who were given the vaccine in an irregular way, a matter with which the orange party has done battle.
It should be noted that it was precisely the scandals of those who sneaked in at the beginning of the vaccination campaign against Covid that led Más País-Equo and Compromís to request in Congress the opening of this investigative commission last February.
However, nine months later and with the bulk of the population vaccinated, the PSOE maintains that the important thing is that the commission focuses on knowing in detail the vaccination strategy in order to learn for future pandemics or health crises, and not so much in specific cases. A position shared by the PP, who also points out that most of the aforementioned politicians have resigned and have been publicly disapproved.
In fact, the work scheme that the commission approved a few weeks ago did not include an investigation of political leaders who were improperly vaccinated despite the fact that Ciudadanos presented an amendment in this regard. The plan only talks about analyzing the "notable incidents" registered during the vaccination process, a proposal that the 'oranges' rejected outright.
That is why the spokesman for Citizen Health, Guillermo Díaz, decided to include in his list of appearing parties all the politicians of both signs who vaccinated ahead of time as well as the president of Murcia, Fernando López Miras, for being this, as he told Europa Press, the community where the most irregularities were registered. But their names fell on deaf ears, like those registered by the rest of the parties with parliamentary representation.
That is the reason why the PP maintains its intention not to act as a "comparsa" in this commission, which it considers "a joke" and "an absolute mockery" of the democracy instigated by Pedro Sánchez, whom it accuses of " Originally delegitimize an investigation commission "where only the voice of the Government will be heard, as denounced by its spokesman for Health, José Ignacio Echániz.
Similar arguments wield from Vox and Ciudadanos, who do not consider going to this parliamentary body as long as the configuration of appearing parties is not modified, according to sources from both formations pointed out to Europa Press.
The appearances of the week
Specifically, the joint list of the PSOE and United We Can includes a fortnight of names, among which are responsible for the Spanish Agency for Medicines and Health Products, the Carlos III Institute and the Ministry of Health, representatives of the Covid 19 Scientific Committee, from different foundations and scientific societies, as well as those responsible for the Vaccination Strategy of the governments of Asturias and Extremadura, among others.
Specifically, on Monday they will parade through the commission María Jesús Lamas Díaz, director of the Spanish Agency for Medicines and Health Products (AEMPS); César Hernández García, head of the Department of Medicines for Human Use of the Spanish Agency for Medicines and Health Products (AEMPS); Agustín Portela Moreira, member of the Scientific Committee of the Covidd-19; Cristóbal Belda Iniesta, director of the Carlos III Health Institute; Fernando Lamata Cotanda, honorary president of the Association for Fair Access to Medicine (AAJM); and Juan López-Belmonte Encina, president of Farmaindustria.
The next day it will be the turn of Marta Moreno Mínguez, member of Corporate Affairs & Market Access Head of AstraZeneca Farmacéutica Spain; Sergio Rodríguez Márquez, president and CEO of Pfizer Spain; Luis Díaz-Rubio Amate, Managing Director of Janssen Cilag, SA
