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The president of the Junta de Castilla y León, Alfonso Fernández Mañueco (PP), will not have an easy task in carrying out the general budgets of the Community for 2025. And now the highest leader of the regional executive finds himself in the situation of being in the minority after the departure of Vox from the government and determined to extend the hand of dialogue to the other political forces to reach agreements. “I have always responded to the calls of the president. Now, need is suffocating him, so let him deserve it,” warned the secretary general and spokesperson of the PSOE in the Community, Luis Tudanca.
After the celebration of the Regional Executive of the PSOECyL, Tudanca appeared before the media to explain the issues discussed. Issues such as this meeting to which Mañueco will invite the parliamentary groups to address the PGC 2025 and which the socialists will attend, but it is clear that “wolves in sheep’s clothing, no.”
Tudanca recalled that three months ago he offered him an agreement to “guarantee political, budgetary and institutional stability” if he dismissed the “extreme right” from the regional government, in reference to Vox, and he answered “no”. That is why he now warns that “need is suffocating him” and that he must “earn it”. Likewise, he recalled that Mañueco maintains an agreement with the PSOE for the reconstruction of Castilla y León, signed in the middle of the pandemic and which “remains unfinished”.
But the socialists will sit alongside the Popular Party, since they have “always” responded to the president’s calls. “In this, we are also different,” he assured. Likewise, he added that he would do so if he “calls him,” because for the moment he has discovered it through the media. “This is also one of the things that Mr. Mañueco does in a very crude way. If he formally summons us, we will attend,” he stressed.
“Unprecedented instability in Castile and Leon”
Precisely, referring to this new minority government of the PP in Castilla y León, Tudanca denounced an “unprecedented instability” in the region, adding that there have been “three governments in the last three years.” Something that, according to him, has “consequences on the development” of the citizens of the region and has influenced the fact that “the extreme right has put a cordon sanitaire on him and not him on them.”
Something that, for Tudanca, has caused “damage to prestige, image and well-being” that is “irreparable”. Likewise, he accused Mañueco of settling into “radicalism” and announced that he would present to the plenary session of the Cortes of Castilla y León an interpellation on the policy of migration and integration in Castilla y León. “We are going to make him pass the cotton test”, he warned.
He also announced that they would present a battery of proposals on housing to the Cortes of Castilla y León and criticized the fact that the President of the Council announced with “fanfare” that he will build 134 homes for 2,248 municipalities. “The reality is that 7 out of 10 euros spent on housing policies are financed by the Spanish government,” he insisted. In this sense, he stressed that a public stock of social rental housing must be launched “throughout the territory.”
The socialist leader stressed that Mañueco’s “changes of coat” “we already know them” and ironically said that “now it turns out that we are changing parliamentary spokespersons and we are already moderate”, referring to the new appointment of Ricardo Gavilanes as the new spokesperson of the PP in the Cortes, replacing Raúl de la Hoz, currently in the European Parliament.
“This is the same Mañueco who went to Vox and defended racist mayors from his own party,” Tudanca warned, adding that the latest example of his “radicalism” is the “intolerable veto” that he and the party president adopted. The Salamanca Provincial Council, Javier Iglesias, imposed on the Minister of Agriculture, Luis Planas, preventing him from going to Salamaq.
Tudanca stressed that Planas is the Minister of Agriculture who “gave the most money to Castilla y León in history” and that it was the Spanish government that advanced the money for the Common Agrarian Policy (CAP), or the “first in history” to provide direct aid to farmers and ranchers. Farmers and ranchers who entered by force into the territorial delegation of the Junta in Salamanca. “The person they were not very happy with was the Junta. It is intolerable that they believe that Salamanca belongs to them. They want to patrimonialize power and institutions,” he denounced.
New agriculture spokesperson to be announced on Thursday
However, he warned that the person who will be in Salamaq will be the new spokesperson for the Socialists for Agriculture in the Cortes of Castilla y León, something that will be decided after a meeting on Thursday in his parliamentary group.
A new spokesperson who will replace Juan Luis Cepa, already a former member of the PSOECyL and former lawyer after it was learned that he was involved in an investigation for an alleged sexual assault on a 13-year-old boy. Asked whether Tudanca could have spoken with Cepa himself, the leader of the socialists recalled that he was already a “former colleague”, thus avoiding answering.
A “former colleague” who, in addition, tried to erase his tracks in the Cortes of Castilla y León after requesting the elimination of 51 initiatives bearing his signature. From interpellations and questions to non-legislative proposals in the period from 2022 to August 2024.
Tudanca, with “the strength and enthusiasm” to continue, even if “now is not the time” to talk about it
It is one of the hottest topics, the leadership of the regional leaders of the PSOE is at stake after Pedro Sánchez advanced in the Federal Congress. An issue, however, in which Luis Tudanca does not want to get too involved either. Although he acknowledged that he has “the same desire, the same strength and the same enthusiasm” as when he took up his current position ten years ago, he once again stressed that “now is not the time” to talk about changes, as he did a few days ago.
In this sense, the leader of the PSOECyL stressed that “the only thing that exists” at the moment is a Federal Committee this Saturday, September 7, during which the celebration of the Federal Congress should be convened, which will then be followed by the regions and provinces.
He insisted that “we will talk about it when the time comes” and joked about “media coverage” in which his departure was desired. In the same way, he stressed that he continues to “fight” for the Community and that he feels “the love and support of the activists”, while avoiding addressing the question of whether Pedro Sánchez had asked him to take a step back.
Single financing of Catalonia
Luis Tudanca also said that they would transmit to the Federal Committee that will be held this Saturday the position of the PSOECyL on the single financing agreed between the PSC and the ERC. In this sense, he indicated that he would take the financing pact signed in Castilla y León where the specific variables are included after the opening of the debate on the agreement in the Catalan region.
The socialist leader of Castilla y León reiterated once again that his party’s position on financing is the one agreed with the former president of the Junta de Castilla y León, Juan Vicente Herrera, where certain demographic variables, dispersion or extension are taken into account.
In this sense, he reiterates his defense of financing by consensus within the Fiscal and Financial Policy Council and the consideration of the circumstances of Castilla y León, but he also recalled that the Government has taken into account the singularities of the Community by taking into account the adjusted population for the provision of services.
