Santiago Abascal blocked the first investiture of Maria Guardiola and the inability of his party to understand what he then called “Irene Montero from Extremadura” had an immediate consequence in the elections in Castilla y Léon: Vox went to the polls with the expectation of overcoming the barrier of 20% of the vote for the first time and remained at 18.9%. It barely went up one point. A trigger that forced him to change his belligerence against the PP, a natural ally.
From there, the entire Vox leadership has drawn a distinction: it has praised the good work and disposition of the autonomous barons of the PP and has directed the attacks towards the national leadership, present in the negotiations by order of Alberto Núñez Feijóowho decided to take a seat at the dialogue table when he saw that the threat of an electoral repetition was possible in Extremadura.
Staging aside, the truth is that Vox is once again the preferred partner of the PP to govern together in the autonomous communities. And, in this new starting point, Abascal wants to take advantage of the Extremadura pact to convince the most pragmatic voters that everything signed this week in Mérida will also be replicated in Aragon, in Castilla y León, and in every point where the PP depends on Vox.
Hence the defense he made yesterday Ignacio Garrigatwo from Vox, of the agreement, which he framed in a “national context.” He wanted to highlight that the bulk of the measures for Extremadura “can be extrapolated to other regions.” From Genoa, an active part of understanding –Miguel Telladosecretary general, and Martha VarelaFeijóo’s chief of staff, have been in the forge supervising the negotiations – the popular commanders show their satisfaction with the outcome. And they assure that the agreement can be transferred to other territories and, tomorrow, also to the government of Spain.
To the question of whether it also applies to Andalusia, the answer is resounding: “Let’s hope it’s not necessary”. And Abascal published this Friday on his X account: «Despite the political confrontation and despite the differences, which are many, we have reached an agreement in Extremadura that puts the Spanish first. Today Andalusians can see clearly the things that would begin to change with Vox.
Juanma Moreno’s strategy
However, the Andalusian president and candidate for re-election precisely wants to use the Extremadura pact to boost the useful vote from the more temperate fishing grounds that do not want a government conditioned by Vox’s postulates.
«In Andalusia we look for other options, to be free, a government alone and that there are no six months of blockadebut that we can start from minute one,” he said this Friday. As he did in the 2022 campaign, he once again pronounced the fetish conjunction of “sufficient majority” to convince voters.
And he added: “The Andalusians will have the opportunity on May 17 to decide if they want a route like the one that Extremadura, or Castilla y León, or Aragón has had to open, or a single route, which is the Andalusian route, which is a government with stability and, therefore, a sufficient majority.”