After more than two months of negotiations, the PP and Vox yesterday sealed the government agreement that will grant the presidency of Aragon to the popular Jorge Azcón. It is an 80-point pact in which the ideological imprint of the ultra-right has a notable weight, with commitments such as the repeal of the regional Democratic Memory law, the reform of the trans law, the intention to put an end to the “ideology” in classrooms or the suppression of the general direction of Linguistic Policy.
“Vox’s program is reasonably included”, congratulated its national leader, Santiago Abascal. Even so, their formation agreed to park the transfer of the Ebro, a matter that confronts them, or to collect explicit references to male violence.
In the notable absence of Azcón, the act of signing fell to the spokespersons of the parties in the Courts, the popular Ana Alós and the ultra-nationalist Alejandro Nolasco, the next vice-president of the community. Regarding the absence of its leader, Alós pointed out that “it has been done like in the Balearic Islands”, where the parliamentary spokesmen were the ones who initialed the pact, although in this case Vox is not part of the Government. Hours later, Azcón himself congratulated himself on Twitter for the start of “a new stage”.
With 28 deputies out of a possible 67, the popular always opted to govern alone. However, Vox’s refusal to facilitate his necessary abstention, the results of the general elections and the proximity of the deadline for not repeating elections (August 23) forced him to make his position more flexible. The result is a pact in which Vox stands up with a vice-presidency and two ministries (the ultranationalists aspired to three): Agriculture and Livestock and Territorial Development, Depopulation and Justice, which will fall to Nolasco.
With regard to the program, the PP also gave in with the inclusion of the repeal of the Aragon Democratic Memory law, despite the fact that Alós pointed out that his party had voted against this initiative. On the other hand, he did acknowledge that they had supported the Identity and Expression of Gender and Social Equality law, the trans-regional law, which was approved unanimously and which they now intend to reform. “There is room for improvement”, pointed out the popular spokeswoman, but did not give any clues as to what.
In line with the demands of the far-right, the coalition also proposes the suppression of the general direction of Linguistic Policy and the revision of the text of the law of Use, Protection and Promotion of Aragon’s Own Languages ??and Linguistic Modalities (the Aragonese and the Aragonese variant of Catalan). “We will protect Aragonese history and culture, indissoluble parts of Spanish history and culture, in the face of the lies and interested manipulations of exclusionary and expansionist Catalan nationalism,” says another section.
Another sign of the ideological turn can be seen in the inclusion of a measure by which parents will “freely choose and authorize the content of extracurricular activities”, which recalls the controversial parental veto. Also in the absence of any mention of climate change in the three sections on the fight against housing occupation.
On the contrary, the PP has not given in regarding the Aragonese Gender Violence law, which Vox intended to eliminate. Although it does not mention it expressly, the agreement does declare the “support and fight against violence against women”, and the need to work to eradicate “sexist discourses” or support “victims of domestic violence” (women, children, elderly people…) and assist them. In addition, Alós stressed that the Aragonese Institute of Women will remain, and sources from the PP pointed out that competences in matters of equality will fall to the Ministry of the Presidency.
The pact also does not contain any explicit mention of the transfer of the Ebro, a possibility that Azcón opposes without cracks in the face of Vox’s wishes to connect all the hydrographic basins. In this sense, the text is limited to betting on the “full development of all the hydraulic regulation works” necessary to guarantee the water reserve that is included in the Statute of Autonomy. “What is in the party programs is one thing and the government agreement is another. This is what we will defend tooth and nail”, stressed Alós.
The rest of the parties in the Courts (the PSOE, Terol Existeix, Chunta, IU and Podem) criticized the pact and announced their vote against it, while the only PAR deputy, who aspired to enter the Council of Government, it has not been pronounced. In principle, Azcón’s candidacy could be put to a vote next Thursday to take over as soon as possible from the socialist Javier Lambán, still acting president.