The agreements closed throughout Spain have not improved relations between the two parties, condemned to understand each other after 23-J
“There is no day without scare & rdquor;. A leader of the PP sums it up with these words after a week in which the debate on the pacts with Vox it has been getting tangled up. The popular national leadership denies contradictions — “if we agree with Vox badly and if later we do not do it badly too” — they complain. They insist that each community has its own circumstances and that the entry of Santiago Abascal’s party in the autonomous governments depends on the electoral weight achieved on 28M. “It is exclusively that”, they try to settle, without going into details that have not been liked at all in Genoa, such as the profiles chosen by the ultra party for institutional positions in the Cortes of Aragon and the Balearic Parliament.
In any case, the internal discomfort and the feeling that it has been mismanaged points in another direction, according to different leaders consulted: the incoherence in the speeches of the territorial leaders, the vetoes that are valid in one place and not in another. AND the excessive harshness in some messages against Voxwhich is already the partner of the PP in many places.
That each territory has its nuances is clear. For this reason, in the national leadership they naturally assume that the pact of Valencia “was inevitable& rdquor;. What they could avoid, they add in Carlos Mazón’s PP, was that Carlos Flores Juberías, convicted of sexist violence, held the vice presidency or another position in the Government. That was not acceptable. But the presence of Vox, “with more than 12% of the votes and, above all, 13 seats& rdquor; was not up for discussion. “Extremadura is different & rdquor;They say in practically all sectors of the PP.
There are even leaders who have viewed the management of Maria Guardiola in the negotiation with Vox. “Here the problem is belligerence. If she promised not to rule with them, let her go ahead. But that statement is unnecessary and leaves other companions at the feet of the horses& rdquor ;. The woman from Extremadura, who has seen how the suffocating national focus turned on her, will remain firm until the end. If there is electoral repetition, there will be. The confidence in the Extremaduran PP is that on July 23 the scenario will change. “Other options can be opened & rdquor ;, they say on their team.
More distrust after the pacts
The PP leads the polls, but there are four weeks to go before the general elections and the right faces this appointment full of suspicions. Alberto Núñez Feijóo’s team works with the scenario of a lone government, convinced that the effect of 28M could be even greater, and that the pacts with Vox (actually, they qualify, “only one at the regional level for now& rdquor ;, you will not be billed). The ultra party, on the other hand, maintains its order: the votes to Vox “are not even given away & rdquor; nor will they be “free & rdquor; for no one. Nor for the PP.
The two formations are aware that must be understood, one way or another, with affirmative votes or abstentions. That is, at least, the scenario drawn by all the polls. And yet after signing agreements throughout Spain (132 town halls, several regional parliaments and the coalition in the Valencian Community) the relationship is now one of greater mistrust.
Vox has entrusted the MEP and spokesman for the political action committee, Jorge Buxadé, with the total confidence of Abascal and a clear representative of the hardest wing, the final fringes of the negotiations. That is why he has also attended the constitutive sessions of the regional assemblies. In all of them he has sent the same message to the PP: “When you want, you can.”
The last agreement to be closed, that of the Cortes de Aragón, on Thursday in the middle of the night, gave a good account of the suspicions that exist. Vox announced the pact that allowed its deputy Marta Fernández to become president. They made it clear in their statement signed only with their members that it had nothing to do with the investiture of the popular Jorge Azcón. But the PP denied that agreement to confirm it shortly after.
The tension has become evident and both parties recognize that “it will go further & rdquor;. In this context, the PP has designed a summer campaign (with his “blue summer & rdquor; appealed by RTVE and that has angered the family of Antonio Mercero, creator of the series that has become a popular icon) with which he intends to avoid confrontation and catastrophic speeches. The message that it is necessary to unite the useful vote, to “throw Pedro Sánchez out at once & rdquor; without ties or coalitions that make governance more difficult, will become a mantra. “Feijóo gave his approval to Mazón. But his model is not the Valencian one. His model is his, that of Galicia. That of Juanma Moreno as well and that of Ayuso, not so much in the message, but in the numbers. He wants to govern alone and avoid Vox at all costs& rdquor ;, sums up a national leader.
a tough campaign
Abascal will put all the meat on the grill and from this weekend begins an intense pre-campaign in which he will tour many cities in Spain. Vox has negotiated different gangs with the PP for the first time and has achieved objectives that were unclear until months ago: entering municipal governments and a large square, after the experience of Castilla y León, such as the Valencian Community. “That what happened in Castilla y León was not an isolated event is the key. We had to establish ourselves as a political force& rdquor ;, they emphasize the party. That is what happened on 28M and now they are beginning to reap the benefits.
The governments of the Balearic Islands and Aragon are still in the air and they might not materialize until after the generals. But the presidencies of both assemblies are already a reality and are led by politicians with very controversial profiles that the PP does not like at all. In Extremadura things have become more complicated. And the Valencian vice-presidency and other ministries, in addition to the many town halls that are beginning to govern, are a letter of introduction that truncates the strategy of the PP: “It is useful to vote for us because we enter the governments & rdquor ;, summary.
In Vox they affirm that their messages in the campaign will be directed against Pedro Sánchez. That the PP is not their enemy and the idea that they will repeat is “a hand outstretched to build an alternative& rdquor; to the current government. But the criticisms of the PP, taking the case of Extremadura as an example, will gain strength under the idea that without Vox “Feijóo will approach the PSOE”.
The PP does not have many more assets than that of Isabel Diaz Ayuso to counter Vox in that regard. The Madrid president acts as main counterweight and, at the same time, it unapologetically exhibits a greater attunement with the ultra. He did it during the investiture speech, already with an absolute majority, yes. And Rocío Monasterio thanked her. For the rest, Genoa warns that “Feijóo will not stop being Feijóo & rdquor; and that the option offered is what is seen. His only objective, leaving aside the voting percentages with which he also got entangled, is to get the enough seats so that Vox does not enter any ministry in the event that the PP reaches Moncloa.