This Sunday, Andalusia is called to the polls. Because of its population, because of its idiosyncrasy and, now also, because of its contribution to GDP, these are some crucial elections for all of Spain. For this reason, the first thing to demand is that Andalusians flock to the polling stations, overcoming the suffocating heat of summer and a certain disaffection unevenly distributed among the electoral offers. The left is more unmotivated than the right. Both because of the changes in the main party of that community until that moment, the PSOE, and because of the disunity and confrontation in the area of Podemos and what was the United Left. In this case, fragmentation favors those who have governed, Juan Manuel Moreno Bonillawho in his four years in the presidency has transmitted the best image of the PP, has swallowed Citizens and has made them forget their dependence on Vox. Moreno caresses the absolute majority, more than unlikely. He will depend, therefore, on Vox, who has already said that he will not give him support if he is not entering the Government. That will be the great crux of the day after the elections. Allowing Vox to enter the Government of Andalusia has even greater significance than having done so in Castilla y León and Alberto Núñez Feijóo’s European partners will consider it an unequivocal sign that the PP is willing to achieve power in the EU’s fourth largest economy at the hands of an anti-European party like Vox. Without resorting to the prejudices of the cordon sanitaire, the PSOE and the rest of the left must seriously consider whether they can allow this new nonsense.
Moreno Bonilla consolidates the power of the PP in Andalusia precisely because he has not governed according to the stereotype that the left creates of his party when it is in opposition. He has been very careful not to change fundamental elements of the health, education or social protection system, the main powers of the Andalusian Government. And, on the other hand, he has played in favor of removing the autonomous community from its own stereotypes and aspiring to attract investment and industrial wealth, not just tourism or agriculture. Incipiently, Moreno has wanted to export the Malaga model to all of Andalusia, as he himself has said, although he has only half achieved it, both due to the lack of a solid majority and due to the pandemic and the war. Moreno Bonilla knows that this model is incompatible with the confrontation and cultural war that Vox promotes.
If the PP approaches the absolute majority, its obligation is to first seek the support of the PSOE no matter how difficult it may be before municipal elections and with general elections just around the corner. Because Moreno and Feijóo know that their project is a winner away from Vox and not entering their coarse battles, no matter how much applause on the networks and in certain media that it provokes. Of course the PSOE must be receptive to that possibility and commit to a medium-term project in Andalusia and a pre-campaign for the next elections that is not based on the frentismo but in realism. Spain is risking its future in Andalusia. With all due respect, this is not a community like Castilla y León but a heavyweight of demography, economy and politics. Short-term games have brought us to the current situation on a national scale, with a government that is ashamed of itself, on both sides, and an opposition that supports it almost secretly. Neither Andalusia nor the whole of Spain deserve to follow that sad path.