The announcement of tax reductions, the attraction of companies, a shock plan in health or the defense of “freedom” in education. These have been the strong points of the investiture speech offered this Wednesday by the PP candidate for the presidency of Aragon, Jorge Azcón, before the plenary session of the Aragonese Parliament. A speech in which he has gone over the most controversial points of the government agreement signed with Vox – repeal of the regional law of Democratic Memory or the reform of the Trans-autonomous law, for example – which guarantees him an absolute majority in the vote this Thursday.
Azcón devoted the first part of his speech to shelling out his initiatives in economic matters. After months criticizing the management of his predecessors (the quadripartite formed by PSOE, Chunta, Podemos and PAR) for turning Aragon into “a fiscal hell”, the popular announced a drop in the regional section of personal income tax for medium and low incomes and the “gradual” elimination throughout the legislature of the Inheritance and Gift Tax up to its legal minimum.
“I know that there are deputies of this Chamber who think that everything possible must be collected and at all costs, even from the dead. But the Inheritance Tax is a punishment for the effort of a lifetime ”, she denounced during the first day of the investiture.
Likewise, it has advanced that in the next legislature work will be done to “raise the minimum exempt from Wealth Tax up to 700,000 euros”, because “it is not fair that the Aragonese suffer the highest wealth tax paid in Spain”.
The next Aragonese president has also promised to promote a policy of attracting companies that promotes logistics platforms and to establish contacts with the Ministry of Industry and with companies interested in installing the first microchip factory in Spain, to try “for all media” that choose this community as their headquarters.
“Aragon cannot afford to lose more opportunities than those that significantly and uniquely transform the productive structure”, he emphasized in reference to the failed implementation in the community of the battery factories of the Volkswagen and Tata companies.
In energy matters, Azcón opted for renewables while announcing the creation of an investigation commission into its implementation due to the “multiple irregularities” denounced in the community in previous months. He also promised direct aid for drought for agriculture and livestock complementary to that of the central government – a field that Vox will manage in one of its two ministries – and a support plan for the snow sector.
Another of the strong points has been the defense of “freedom” in education, as stated in his 80-point pact with Vox. In this sense, Azcón has guaranteed the implementation of the necessary mechanisms to ensure that families can opt for the educational center “of their choice”, both according to their ownership and the modality of schooling or their educational model, as well as tax exemptions For families that, in accordance with the educational center or on its recommendation, must hire an external reinforcement for their children.
It also advanced the free education from 0 to 3 years, the progressive inclusion of the baccalaureate in the educational agreement system or salary improvements for teachers.
Regarding health, Azcón was determined to promote public-private collaboration, which he considers “essential” to provide services efficiently. Among his big bets, the reduction of waiting lists, a salary increase for professionals, reinforcement in mental health care or the approval of a Health Infrastructure Plan.
From the lectern, the popular party also outlined some of its initiatives in terms of depopulation -20% bonus in labor costs, improving urgent medical transport-, housing or a reorganization of the administration that facilitates citizens their relationship with it . In this sense, he announced an audit on the ordinary functioning of the Government and the agencies that depend on it and the suppression of the commissioners for the 2030 Agenda, “which only represent an unnecessary expense.”
Before concluding, he once again proposed to the PSOE a Pact for Health and another for the improvement of regional financing, which should be addressed “from unity” to prevent the pro-independence forces “attempting to pervert it by generating more inequalities and territorial grievances”.
In a subsequent press conference, the opposition parties criticized the popular’s speech, which they accused of deceiving with the data and leading a government with “the usual right-wing recipes”, in the words of the spokesman for Chunta Aragonesista, José Luis soro.
For his part, the Vox spokesman and future vice-president, Alejandro Nolasco, valued positively the “brief review” that Azcón made from the rostrum of the government plan and avoided criticizing that the popular one tiptoed through some of the flagship issues of the extreme right included in the pact. “What he has not said today we will say tomorrow,” he advanced.
In Thursday’s session, it will be the turn of the parties with representation in the Chamber to intervene, to which the popular candidate may respond one by one. Later, the vote will take place, which Azcón is expected to win comfortably thanks to his 28 deputies, the 7 from Vox and the only representative of the PAR, with whom he reached a last-minute investiture agreement on Tuesday.
