If the good God, as Flaubert said, or the devil, according to Mies van der Rohe’s variant, is in the details, in politics (intelligent) ambition resides in the gestures. In public life it is not enough to know how to articulate a (favorable) account of things. The messages have to be recited and interpreted with a certain diction, the necessary vehemence – no more, no less – and a conviction that conveys verisimilitude and credibility. Fictions are our way of trying to order and understand what happens, but not just any story works. Juan Manuel Moreno Bonilla has chosen the role of third soloist within the territorial orchestra of Genoa, the great battle front of Alberto Núñez Feijóo against the investiture (at any price) of Pedro Sánchez.
Like the rest of the conservative regional presidents, the Andalusian hero has been singing his aria against the PSOE-Sumar-independentistas agreement for months. Like his equal, he is also preparing an appeal to the Constitutional Court against the amnesty and criticizes the repercussions (against democracy, equality and the separation of powers) of the alliance between Sánchez and the parliamentary minorities contrary to the Constitution. The difference between him and other regional leaders of the PP lies in the tone chosen and in the terms of his rhetoric of resistance. Isabel Díaz Ayuso (Madrid) has defined the absolutism of the President of the Government as “dictatorship”. Carlos Mazón (Valencia) links the transfers of the PSOE and Sumar with the independence delirium of the Catalan Countries. Similar (tremendous) tuning is used by many other regional presidents of the PP, from Extremadura to Murcia or Castilla y León. Everyone recites the official Genoa argument while the socialists and the summables (now without Podemos) celebrate the benefits of the amnesty in a succession of infinite catechisms.
Between these two Greek choirs that compete with each other, Moreno Bonilla, without deviating from the PP script, plays at his own pace. Although he insists on the democratic breakdown that the amnesty entails, he focuses his criticism on a regional basis. It helps him not to be conditioned by Vox – he has enjoyed an absolute majority for a year –, his moderation strategy – reproaches without anger, censures without insults – and the (evident) will to mark differences with Madrid and Valencia, the only two baronies that , due to population weight, they could dispute his influence within Genoa.
Why does Moreno Bonilla use a resounding and firm but less stormy register? The first reason is the (political) character that he has built in the last five years: a ruler located in the most liberal wing of the PP, allergic to confrontation and with a soft profile, susceptible to being voted for – as was already evident in the elections. autonomous – by the PSOE electorate. The president of the Board, taking advantage of the fact that the socialists and the left left the Andalusian flag by the wayside in 2018, just when Sánchez acceded to the Moncloa with the vote of the sovereignists, has been defending territorial cohesion for five years to replace the PSOE and IU, beholden to the interests of the state leadership of their parties.
His tactic has consisted of absorbing Ciudadanos, seducing critical socialists and broadening his electoral base with an Andalusian revival. His speech against the investiture is what a classic social democrat would make. In fact, it is the same one that the Andalusian PSOE had until 2018. Moreno Bonilla knows perfectly well that he cannot replicate the historic demonstrations of 1977 in favor of self-government – ??although he has not stopped organizing rallies that greatly worry the socialists – and he modulates his words so that they are not a simple copy of the Genoa messages, but rather their own, open and transversal line of opposition.
Their arguments are not limited to the political deterioration and the aggression against the separation of powers that the amnesty will bring. They extend to the impact that the PSOE-Sumar-independence alliance will have for Andalusia in terms of financing and treatment. He insists a lot on the grievance because social sensitivity with this issue is very high in the south. His melody within the PP orchestra, baptized by himself as the Andalusian way, is unique but not original. San Telmo has plagiarized it from the documents of the third congress of Andalucía Por Sí (2019), one of the minorities (without parliamentary representation) that emerged after the extinction of the Andalusian Party (PA). This Andalusian route allows it to embed its majority in Andalusia and, in parallel, places it in a symbolic center with respect to the extremisms of Genoa
