There are just over forty-eight hours left for the constitution of the more than eight thousand councils that exist in Spain and negotiations are progressing with more or less discretion. The autonomous communities, although they have much more room to negotiate, are also the subject of transactions between parties these days, particularly between the Popular Party and the ultra-right party Vox, without whose competition it will be difficult to govern. Pacts of the right with the ultranationalist party that are negotiated in city councils such as that of Toledo or Guadalajara, where the most voted list was the socialist one.
Vox announced yesterday a pre-agreement with the PP to govern the Burgos City Council in coalition, according to which the popular candidate, Cristina Ayala, will be the mayor, the first in the history of the city, and Vox’s representative, Fernando Martínez Acitores, would be the vice mayor. It was the latter who confirmed the pre-agreement to the media, although he added that “some fringes” are missing, such as the distribution of municipal powers between the two parties.
The socialist Daniel de la Rosa, candidate from the most voted list with twelve councillors, had offered the PP a pact as a priority partner and even to be part of the government, always with the socialist as mayor. The PP obtained eleven deputies, and Vox, three. Burgos would be one of the cases – there are fourteen provincial capitals in this situation – in which the two right-wing parties have more councilors than the party that won the elections, the PSOE.
Jesús Julio Carnero is emerging as the next mayor of Valladolid. The candidate of the PP approaches positions with Vox, the third party in the elections of 28-M in which the PSOE was the party with the most votes and the PP the second, despite the fact that both were tied with eleven councilors each. The three Vox councilors are worth a lot.
Murcia was the first autonomous government in which former members of Vox played a decisive role in ensuring the continuity of the government of Fernando López Miras in that crisis – now forgotten – that Ciutadans was responsible for. Now, after the elections, the PP has 21 seats, almost an absolute majority and needs at least two votes from Vox to get it and block the way to the second party, the PSOE, with thirteen deputies, and Podemos with two.
Everyone expected that in the constitution of the Murcian Parliament the ultra party would get one of the secretaries of the Chamber, but surprisingly this option went to the PSOE, which upset Vox, and a lot, to the point that its leader, Santiago Abascal, warned that if this continues the party will promote a new call for elections. For the far-right party, “it is yielding to the pressure of Carrer Génova”. Vox aspired to keep the presidency of the Parliament. Once the House is constituted, there is no date for the investiture debate. López Miras can take the negotiation calmly.
If anything is clear, it is that the PSOE, despite being the party with the most votes on 28-M, is already giving up the regional government. The current president, Guillermo Fernández Vara, is studying the possibility of ending up as regional senator while two of his councillors, the one for Agriculture, Rural Development, Population and Territory and the spokesman for the Executive, have resigned to go to Congress. Immediately after the elections, the PP candidate, Maria Guardiola, announced her intention to come to an understanding with Vox, and reiterated this in daily appearances to put pressure on her representatives. But for a few days silence has prevailed. The agreement must be imminent.
The winner of the past regional elections, the candidate of the PP, Marga Prohens, met yesterday with representatives of the party of Abascal to try to close an agreement, but the premise with which she arrives at the negotiation is resounding: there will be no government mixed with Vox, as in the Valencian Community, even if this blockade leads to early elections.
In the Balearic Islands, the PP obtained 26 deputies and was four seats short of an absolute majority. She outnumbers the entire left in terms of seats, which is why it would be enough for the eight Vox MPs to abstain to become president. The PP is ready to cede a seat on the Parliament Table to Vox, but has not considered ceding the presidency of the regional Chamber. Vox has relented in its demand to enter the government, despite the fact that initially Vox’s requests were more lukewarm in the face of the evidence that Prohens does not need their votes, but their abstention.
