The negotiations in Castilla y León after the elections on February 13 promise to reach the last moment. A few hours after the Cortes are constituted, PP and Vox have not managed to reach an agreement and the tension is already transferred to the great pact that they must continue to address: the investiture of Alfonso Fernández Mañueco and the first coalition government. The president of the Board who is running for re-election confirmed on Wednesday night the offer of a “government agreement” that, de facto, would mean sharing councils with the ultra party for the first time in an autonomous community.
“I understand democracy from dialogue, not from imposition. I have offered Vox a government agreement for the benefit of the people of Castilla y León,” Mañueco wrote on his Twitter profile.
We continue to offer an agreement where Castilla y León wins. If we think about what is best for Castilians and Leonese, it will be very easy for us to meet.
– Alfonso F. Mañueco (@alferma1) March 9, 2022
This affirmation occurs in the middle of the war for the story and in the absence of progress to agree on the presidency of the Cortes. According to sources from the Castilian-Leon PP, Vox moved “an ultimatum” to preside over the regional Parliament, in addition to entering the future government. “We are not going to give in. They want it all”they affirm in the environment of Mañueco rejecting the idea.
In his first appearance at the national headquarters in Genoa, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, the future national leader of the PP, once again avoided speaking clearly about pact policies and assured that it is Mañueco who has “the freedom and responsibility” to give stability to his autonomy. However, the president of the Xunta yes he was inclined to retain the presidency of the Cortes.
As this newspaper published, beyond Vox there is an alternative formula that would allow the PP to preside over the Parliament of Castilla y León with the support of the three prosecutors of Soria Now!. The Soriana platform claims to remain open to negotiation, but warns that its support will imply compensation with concrete budgets for your province.
Yesterday the options of this route moved away due to the lack of details from the popular side, as explained in the local party. “Either Vox presides over the Cortes or the PP presides over them in exchange for our proposals,” settle sources on the platform. The agreement would also allow the popular to sweeten a future government agreement with Vox, conveying an image of greater transversality.
Vox’s ultimatum
The party led by Juan García-Gallardo in Castilla y León issued a statement on Wednesday night assuring that the PP “refuses to reach a coalition agreement” with his party and made public one by one the points of his proposal. In short, an agreement with twelve axes of government and several actions that would be carried out in the first 90 days. The ultra formation raised the tone against the PP insisting that it should be Mañueco “who explains to his voters” why he rejects the agreement. And the president of the Board replied with the aforementioned tweet, assuring that “from the first moment he offered” that joint government and that it is Vox “the one that does not move.”
In the Castilian-Leon PP they affirm that the background of this preventive distribution of blame and “the attack” of Vox responds to the demand to take over the presidency of the Cortes. And they insist that they “will not give in” to that ultimatum. The PP, which continues to leave the door open for the government not to be a coalition government despite the fact that Vox has placed its red line in taking over several ministries, prepare the ground for, precisely, an executive of the two parties. And, for that reason, they understand that Vox “has no right” to be in charge of the regional Parliament as well.
Related news
The popular ones tried to advance in a parallel way in the negotiation of the Cortes and the government itself. If it was not possible, they explained to this newspaper, “they would close as much as they could” and continue later. The reality is that this Thursday the Cortes must be constituted and, regardless of what happens, the two formations could continue talking to form a government.
The urgency is different and there is a wide margin. Already on the morning of this Wednesday, sources from the national leadership of Vox showed a certain pessimism in Congress, assuring that “things were not going well.” The PP insists that they are two different things: one, the Cortes and the other, the regional government.