RTVE hosted the first of the electoral debates in which the six candidates for the presidency of the Junta de Andalucía participated. For almost two hours, Juanma Moreno (PP), Juan Espadas (PSOE), Juan Marín (Cs), Inmaculada Nieto (Por Andalucía), Macarena Olona (Vox) and Teresa Rodríguez (Adelante Andalucía) measured their strength before the electorate in a meeting that has been moderated by Paloma Jara, director of RTVE Andalucía, and by Xabier Fortes, presenter of La Noche en 24 horas.
Already the first minute was a declaration of intent from all the participants. Moreno, who continues to bet on moderation and smiling as a strategy, relied on graphics and slides to reinforce his arguments, citing the change that has occurred in the region after his arrival in San Telmo. The acting Chairman of the Board has avoided conflict, anchoring himself in prudence and serenity.
For his part, Marín, who has avoided a clash with the popular party but not with the rest of the candidates, asked for support to reissue the coalition between the two formations and with which, in his opinion, Andalusia has been put at the head of the locomotive.
The socialist Espadas insisted on awarding the improvements in the labor field to the central government led by the socialist Pedro Sánchez, since Inmaculada Nieto did the same with the vice president and Minister of Labor Yolanda Díaz. Teresa Rodríguez raised the Andalusian flag asking for support for all those who consider that it is necessary for the region to have its own voice, while Olona argued that her “scissors” will cut superfluous political spending to invest in real change policies while pointing out the ” punishment” that the South has suffered for “its loyalty to Spain”.
There have been three blocks on which this debate has been structured: economy, employment and taxation; education, health, social services and equality; and territorial challenge, autonomous financing, democratic regeneration and possible pacts.
Opposite the popular “triumphalism”, as Macarena Olona has described Bonilla’s attitude, are the data that all the candidates have been providing in terms of employment, economy and taxation. Each and every one of the popular’s opponents, with the exception of Marín, have made a poor assessment of these economic policies carried out by the coalition government, insisting that the improvements in terms of the minimum interprofessional salary or the review of pensions come from the central government. Olona, ??for his part, has painted an Andalusia in black where families separate to seek a future in other communities or in other countries due to what he considers the “abandonment of the rural world” fostered by the previous socialist government and perpetuated by the current one. . “I am here as a containment dam,” she said, “so that the money is invested in happiness in the families” and so that the children “do not study in barrancones.”
“Of the 17 poorest municipalities in Spain, 12 are Andalusian”, replied Teresa Rodríguez, who has emphasized the need to generate a productive change based on industrialization, improvements in work in the field, as well as the firm commitment for diversification. “Andalusia cannot live on tourism alone,” she said, while she alluded to “fiscal justice” for the working class and harshly criticized the tax cuts carried out by this government. “People inherit public services and we see how that has been deteriorating.”
For his part, Nieto reproached the acting president of the Board that, being the government “with the greatest resources in the history of the Board, it has saved it, and now boasts of a surplus” when what must be done “is to mobilize it to help the self-employed.
Macarena Olona opened the second block of proposed topics, ‘Education, health, social services and equality’. The woman from Alicante did not take long to unleash the controversy by re-linking, as she has already done in other public acts, immigration with crime, and has appealed to the “pull effect” promoted by the socialists and the popular management of this “ideological heritage”.
His exposition has been described as “xenophobic and racist” by Espadas, while Marín has pointed out that “the competence to put an immigrant in his place of origin does not belong to the communities.” “I find it difficult for him to know what an Andalusian woman feels if she hasn’t walked around here”. Moreno Bonilla has tiptoed around the issue, focusing on the investments made in education, health and social services.
Another issue addressed has been gender violence, where Vox has been quick to deny the existence of this scourge, declared that gender policies “victimize” women. “Violence has no gender” and “with their policies they have abandoned the real victims of domestic violence” that is why “we are going to close all their ideological beach bars that leave them unprotected”, he continued. Against her, Espadas, Nieto and Rodríguez have claimed feminist policies as the only possible way to guarantee equality among citizens. “Vox is a political arm of sexist terrorism”, sentenced the leader of Adelante Andalucía.
If there is one thing that all the political leaders have agreed on, it is the need to reform regional financing, a system, they say, that harms the interests of Andalusians. Moreno has come to encrypt the loss of funds for the region one billion euros a year since he has accused socialism of not wanting to change this situation. “I will work to obtain the autonomous financing that we deserve”, he commented.
Olona, ??for his part, has once again taken out his “chainsaw” to put an end to a “parallel administration” where money is lost due to cases of corruption detected in the region. “The autonomies have caused Andalusia to be punished for being loyal to Spain,” she commented.
While Moreno insisted again that he wants to obtain a sufficient majority to govern alone, without having to rely on third parties to carry out his management, he accused Espadas of wanting to push the region back with a “Frankenstein government” resulting from the sum of all the seats on the left. On the possibility of reaching agreements with Vox, again, the president’s response is still up in the air.
For his part, the one from the orange formation, Juan Marín, continues to bet on a drastic turn in the polls, and has asked for the support of the citizens to reissue the pact that the vice-presidency gave him in the previous elections, leaving out of all quota of power to the extreme right.
The socialist Juan Espadas insists that it is time for “no socialist to stay at home” because Andalusia is playing “progress” next 19-J. In this line, the leader of Por Andalucía has also spoken, who, in her final statement, stated that “resignation is a bad thing in a campaign” but that it is necessary to “strengthen public services and form a government of progress”. This call for participation has also been shared by Rodríguez, who has concluded by affirming that his formation is the only one with a true Andalusian accent, while Olona, ??who can already be seen exercising in San Telmo, announces that on the Sunday of the elections “Andalusia He will be the protagonist of the story.”
