María Guardiola spoke of repeating elections after the knock on Vox’s door, and now the electoral calendar is in the hands of the PSOE. The announcement of the still acting Extremadura president, Guillermo Fernández Vara, who will present himself at the investiture points to repetition. The lack of agreement between PP and Vox gave the presidency of the Assembly of Extremadura to the socialist Blanca Martín, who now has the power to play with the dates as she sees fit, which will possibly cause the debate to be held in the middle of the electoral campaign, a few days before 23-J.
Fernández Vara justified the decision to present himself for the investiture, despite the fact that he will almost certainly have more votes against him than in his favor, by assuring that PP and Vox “have failed in their attempts to agree ” and, for this reason, he asks them “to allow the list with the most votes to rule”, as AlbertoNúñez Feijóo advocates.
“Let Extremadura be able to have a government, let whoever won the elections be able to govern”, emphasized Fernández Vara, who recalled that the PSOE was “the most voted list” and is “the only option for government in these moments”, while urging the PP and Vox to “stop playing with Extremadura”.
Discarded, both by the PP and the PSOE, abstaining for an investiture of Vara or Guardiola, there could only be a president in Extremadura if Guardiola obtained the votes of Vox with support that should be free, because the decision of the candidate to govern alone is firm. The PP assures that it will not retract and has the support of Feijóo, who yesterday endorsed both the “no” in Extremadura and governing in coalition in the Valencian Community.
The numbers leave no other choice. The PSOE and the PP tied with 28 seats, Vox has 5 seats and Podem-IU, 4. Vara, in an investiture, would get the support of the left-wing votes, but there would be 33 against, united not to president Vara, but not to invest Guardiola.
From the Tuesday that the Assembly was constituted, the president has 15 days to propose a candidate, who will have to undergo the investiture in another 15 days, which puts it approximately on July 20. If two months after the first vote, which is assumed to fail, there is no agreement, elections will be called for November.
Yesterday, the exchange of accusations between Feijóo and the leader of the ultra party Santiago Abascal rose in tone. The president of the PP accused the national leadership of Vox of interfering in the negotiations and making impossible the agreement, which left the far-right out of the government, but gave Abascal’s party the presidency of the Assembly, a secretariat and even a regional senator, as PP sources assured La Vanguardia. After consulting with Madrid management, Vox rejected the deal. In the PP they claim that they aspired to the positions and, moreover, to enter the government, which for Feijóo were “exorbitant demands”, especially if you take into account that Vox in Extremadura only got 8% of the votes, while the PP obtained 39%.
Abascal attributed Feijóo’s “ambition” to thwarting the alternative in Extremadura, while accusing the popular candidate of telling “lies about Vox” and “contributing to the demonization of the formation”. In an interview with Canal Sur Radio, the leader of the ultra party acknowledged that “sexist violence exists. We do not deny it”, but he made it clear that Vox will not give the votes to the PP after “some insult and demonize us…, we are not ready for that”, he said.
