The UPN guarantees committee proposes to suspend Sayas and Adanero from militancy for two years and six months

The sanction agreed by this independent body of the party made up of five people is less harsh than the one requested by the party executive led by its president, Javier Esparza, and which had been endorsed by the political council -the highest body of the party between congresses formed by 232 representatives-. Esparza had proposed the expulsion of the two deputies for having “lied to the UPN, its voters and the whole of Navarran society.” “They don’t deserve to be in UPN,” the president of the regionalists sentenced then.

If this proposal is confirmed, Sayas and Adanero will not be able to run for public office again as members of the UPN for the next two years and six months -they would not be available for the 2023 electoral cycle-, but once the sanction is over they will recover militancy. .

Due to the sanction that has been proposed by the guarantees committee, it is understood that the five members of this body state that Sayas and Adanero have committed a “serious” and not a “very serious” infraction, as Esparza proposed, and that it could lead to expulsion from the party. Article 108 of the statutes includes as a serious infraction “any political action that goes against the decisions approved by the Party’s organs, and expressly the breach of the official voting duty in the institutions, established by regulation.”

UPN is thus left without representation in Congress for the first time since 1979, while two deputies will continue in the Mixed Group as independents by refusing to deliver their minutes.

The two will present arguments

Both Sayas and Adanero have already announced that they will present allegations to the proposal of the committee of guarantees and discipline of the party in what they point out is a “deferred expulsion”, as Carlos García Adanero has criticized in statements to Europa Press.

The two maintain that they did not break the party’s discipline by voting against the labor reform and assure that they will “continue to be UPN deputies.” “I also hope to continue being a member of UPN, the party where I have been a member for 22 years and where I hope to do so for the rest of my life,” Sayas said on Monday at the end of his meeting with the guarantees committee.

Sayas clings to the seat and charges Esparza for his expulsion: “The UPN leadership wants us out and the voters inside”

Sergio Sayas has stressed this Wednesday that they have no plans to leave their seat despite the fact that the Guarantees Committee of their political formation has decided to expel them from the party for two years and six months, reports Iñigo Aduriz.

At a press conference in Congress, Sayas has been very harsh with the direction of UPN, in the hands of Javier Esparza. In his opinion, the sanction proposal “is neither motivated nor substantiated” and, therefore, they will argue within the five-day period established by the party’s internal regulations. For Sayas, everything “corresponds to the desire of the party leadership” to kick them out, “widely manifested.” “It is evident that the UPN leadership wants us out and the voters want us in,” he said.

He has justified this affirmation in that, after their decision to vote ‘no’ to the labor reform, both Sayas and Adanero have received “messages of understanding” as well as “an outcry in the streets of Navarra”. “The worst decision we could have made was to use our vote to support a Sánchez government with Podemos,” he remarked. He has also said that the agreement between the UPN and the government is “a hidden agreement” that is still unknown.

It is not the first time that the regionalist party has sanctioned a deputy for skipping voting discipline. In 2008, deputy Santiago Cervera was expelled from the party after refusing to abide by the directive of its president, Miguel Sanz, to abstain from voting on the General Budgets of the Zapatero Government. Cervera voted against and it was Adanero himself who demanded that he hand over his minutes.