The current President of the Senate, José Luis Dalmau, made it public that he had talks with members of the Citizen Victory Movement (MVC) to discuss their positions on the new four-year period prior to the vote where he was ratified as to chairman of the legislature and indicated that Manuel Natal met with him to negotiate votes in favor of his presidency.
“I met with Ana Rima Rivera Lassen and Rafael Bernabe a few weeks ago I told them to promote the participation of all parties, recognize them as a spokesperson, I sat them all in front in the front row, as they deserve “I will promote the processing of the measures, participation in the commissions, and after telling them all this they said that they were not going to participate. that they were not going to give their vote in exchange for anything,” said Dalmau. to the podcast by Aníbal Acevedo Vilá.
In the interview, the senator of the Democratic People’s Party (PPD) and now president of the Senate, has indicated that the former representative and one of the leaders of the MVC asked for a meeting, which they had together with the senator Ana Irma Rivera Lassen and Senator Rafael Bernabe who discussed various issues to find out the positions of Dalmau.
“Later Manuel Natal asked me for an appointment, and as a representative who was in December, which was in December, I accepted the invitation to my office I met with him, I explained to him the same thing I just said, that I told all the parties, I did not ask anyone to vote I did not commit the vote for nothing , I just offered him openness, and they publicly said they weren’t available in exchange for something. However, last Saturday Manuel Natal called me and told me that they wanted to know what my positions were on some issues and I told him the same thing I am telling you and I told the people of Puerto Rico , open to the consideration of the measures and that I guarantee the procedure. On Sunday I had a meeting with both Ana Irma Rivera Lassen and Rafael Bernabe, and they brought me their proposals, I did not call them to negotiate anything, they called me to see how I thought of their proposals and I to say the same, I am a Hannibal vote, even though I preside over the Senate, I am a vote, you have to convince others to get 14 which is the absolute majority required by the constitution to pass a measure, ”Dalmau explained.
Dalmau’s expressions arise after comments from Manuel Natal on social media where he criticized the alliance between the Dignity Project and the PPD. Senator Joanne Rodríguez Veve gave her vote in favor of José Luis Dalmau.
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However, the President of the Senate, has stressed on several occasions in the interview that he did not negotiate votes with any of the members of the legislature.
To him (Manuel Natal) to say publicly that I did not want to negotiate, I did not offer business to anyone. I let people wildly vote the way they wanted, and respect if they didn’t want to vote, if you didn’t want to participate, respect if they voted against me, that’s a democracy.
On the other hand, Dalmau said that he offered to chair commissions to the senator of the Puerto Rican Independentist Party, María de Lourdes Santiago and the senators of the MVC, but these proposals were rejected.