The president of the Junta de Castilla y León, Alfonso Fernández Mañueco, did not specify before Vox or the Socialist Group what he will do with the anti-abortion protocol, the “Concordia” bill and the 2030 Agenda during the next political year, which began this Tuesday in the plenary session of the Cortes and in which the Popular Party will govern in minority.
The only aspect on which the opposition obtained some clarity was the declaration of Cultural Interest (BIC) of the fascist pyramid of the Italians, whose legality it defended. “The guardian of the democratic essences of Sanchism and the government, the Secretary of State for Democratic Memory, was aware of it and did not oppose or appeal. We did things correctly,” said Fernández Mañueco when questioned by the lawyer of Podemos.
The former vice-president of the Junta de Castilla y León and spokesperson for Vox in the Cortes, Juan García-Gallardo, asked Fernández Mañueco for clarifications “beyond empty words and hollow phrases.” García-Gallardo, who recalled that the regional government’s statement on the anti-abortion protocol is still published on the communications portal, asked the regional president what part of the “Concordia” bill – to which “much dialogue, rest and negotiation” was devoted – he “does not like.”
The spokesman for the Socialist Parliamentary Group, Luis Tudanca, demanded that Fernández Mañueco change his policy if he wants the support of his 28 lawyers. “You are going to put on your sheep’s clothing and ask the PSOE to repair together what you have ruined. Has he really broken with the extreme right? He still has a Vox advisor; the other day they limited the PSOE’s parliamentary control initiatives in the Cortés, and so far, in the commissions, Vox has only voted once out of 21 against the government,” said the socialist Luis Tudanca.
For his part, Fernández Mañueco insisted that the PP defends “the same principles” with which it ran in the regional elections, those that made an agreement with Vox possible and with which they approved the 2023 and 2024 budgets and with which it intends to agree with Vox if the far-right party “returns to the path of utility” and “breaks with the Madrid offices.”
Mañueco directly questioned García-Gallardo: “This summer it became clear that the person in charge of your political formation in Castile and León is not you, you are in Madrid. And it will be difficult [acordar] if they opt for partisan strategies marked by their political formation in Madrid, so far from Castilla y León,” he warned.
The spokesman for Soria ¡YA!, Ángel Ceña, also expressed distrust in Fernández Mañueco’s “desire to negotiate”, whom he did not consider “a reliable negotiator” despite the fact that a meeting is scheduled for next Monday, September 16. The president of the Junta de Castilla y León reaffirmed that he would meet with the Soriano party when it is “on the line of utility”, as when the party was only a social platform.
