The situation has reached a point where the PP candidate for the presidency of Extremadura, María Guardiola, has been forced to explain the situation created after her break with Vox and her statements against the formation of Santiago Abascal, because In his opinion, they are being used against the PP in general, to harm Feijóo in his candidacy for the general elections.
For this reason, Guardiola has decided to postpone the meetings of the executive committee and the regional board of the PP of Extremadura, scheduled for tomorrow, and in a letter to his membership he stresses the need to maintain respect for Vox, dialogue and “the programmatic agreement with the Vox formation in Extremadura”, he says in the letter to which La Vanguardia has had access.
The words are well chosen because María Guardiola continues to speak of a “programmatic agreement”, as she was willing to do when the negotiations broke down, but she does not speak of a government coalition, that is, of the entry of Vox members into her government, which is what has always been denied.
In fact, when the negotiations broke down, María Guardiola had offered Vox the presidency of the Assembly, which, when the pact was not reached, fell to the PSOE, a secretariat, a senator appointed by the autonomous community, and a 15-point programmatic agreement, with measures in which PP and Vox agree, especially economic and to help families, but she rejected and continues to reject, when speaking only of a “programmatic agreement”, the entry of Vox into an executive from Extremadura that she presides over.
Where a clear rectification does occur is in the attitude and language used by the president of the PP of Extremadura when talking about Vox, because where at the time, when breaking relations with the formation of Santiago Abascal, Guardiola said “I can’t leave those who deny sexist violence, those who use the bold stroke, those who dehumanize immigrants, those who throw the LGTBI flag into a trash can, will enter the government (…) Nor will I enter into cultural battles that are overcome It is about solving the future of Extremadurans”. She now proclaims that “respect, dialogue and programmatic agreement with the Vox formation is essential.” Nothing to do with his previous ratings that broke any possibility of agreement.
Precisely these statements were the most criticized in the PP, in private, and in public. On the day of the inauguration of Isabel Díaz Ayuso as president, last Friday, an act attended by Guardiola, the former Madrid president, Esperanza Aguirre, made Guardiola ugly with these words, and Ayuso did something similar later. And it is that in the PP what these words meant for their colleagues who had reached agreements was criticized. She now she talks about respect.
Also noteworthy is the point made by María Guardiola in the dialogue letter and agreement with Vox in Extremadura, since both the Extremaduran and national PP blame the fact that an agreement could not be reached on the national leadership of the Abascal formation, and especially Jorge Buxadé.
In the letter to the militancy, dated this Monday, June 26, the president of the Extremadura PP stresses that “these days the post-electoral situation in our autonomous community and the PP of Extremadura are being used to try to influence the national campaign, and that pressure is being transferred unfairly to the PP as a whole”. Guardiola stresses that “we do not want our affiliates’ meetings to be used to harm the organization, or divert the interest of our country, and avoid any tension.”
He adds that “Extremadura spoke at the polls and the regional PP is going to continue working on a dialogue that will allow us, as a result, to soon have a government alternative to put an end to the socialist cycle.” It is noteworthy that, with the language used, it is the first time that María Guardiola does not speak of a government alone as she has done up to now both in the electoral campaign and in the subsequent negotiations. In the letter, he adds that “we are facing a historic opportunity and no one is going to take us away from our goal” and explains that “to reach the destination, one step must always follow another, and they must be taken in the right order so that the journey be completed successfully” because, he stresses, “each step is decisive and the PP has a double objective that we are not going to give up, and that is to form the best government for Extremadura and for Spain”.
For this reason, and “to avoid misinterpretations or distractions that lead us astray, I have decided to postpone the regional Board of Directors and the regional executive committee convened for Tuesday, June 27 until a new date that will be communicated in a timely manner.”
The use of the situation in Extremadura against the party and against Feijóo is not the only problem that the president of the PP from Extremadura has to face. On Sunday night, her personal adviser, Santiago Martínez-Vares, belonging to the communication agency “Rebellious Words”, which has advised Guardiola in recent months. In a statement, the agency stresses that “before the publication on some channels (we resist calling them the media), in a disgusting exercise in dishonesty, of an audio belonging to a private and strictly personal conversation of our CEO, Santiago Martínez- Vares”, they communicate that “at no time have we participated in the negotiations to reach a parliamentary majority”.
The statement refers to some words by Santiago Martínez-Vares, in a WhatsApp audio, in which he said that “Santiago Abascal is going to regret it. You can show him the notches I have on the revolver. Now I’m going for him, no I have another obsession in my life.”
And it is that they attributed to those words of Martínez-Vares against Vox, the breakdown of the negotiations to reach an agreement and the impossibility of resuming the dialogue. The agency’s statement underlines that “we are not going to allow those who want to harm her (María Guardiola) to find in our relationship with her a reason to attack her and for this reason, so that in no case can she be harmed by it and for the good de Extremadura, we voluntarily end our professional relationship with her”, whom they describe as an “intelligent, prepared, upright, honest woman with firm and enviable principles, which we share and admire, and for that reason we wish her the best of luck in political, professional and personal life.
