The mayor of Burgos, Cristina Ayala (PP), canceled the controversial withdrawal of aid to NGOs that work with immigrants in the 2025 budgets, imposed by Vox to carry out the municipal accounts of the government she chairs and which generated a wave from the neighborhood and social rejection.
Ayala announced that the PP would recover this aid in the 2025 budget project, which leaves it in the hands of its government partner to carry out its threat and not support the accounts and leave the municipal government if these cuts, which were made, were not carried out, aroused strong criticism from the opposition, unions and social and neighborhood organizations. The mayor acknowledged that the massive concentration of rejection of the measure “gave us pause.”
“We are not going to break this stability,” said the mayor of Burgos to assume what Vox can do at the moment, reject the budgets and leave the municipal government. And he recalled that to advance the municipal accounts there are alternatives such as the motion of confidence if Vox refuses to support the accounts.
For now, the PP will execute the agreements with the NGOs with an amendment that will be presented next Tuesday to the Finance Commission. This will include maintaining an economic allocation with the three organizations vetoed by Vox “with the same figures” as in 2024. Ayala assured that the PP was informed of the decision vertically, by the provincial president, Borja Suarez; to the regional president of the PP, Alfonso Fernández Mañueco; and the general secretary of the PP, Cuca Gamarra. In this sense, he recognized that the leader of the party at the regional level, Fernández Mañueco, and the secretary general, showed him their conviction that “this was the step that had to be taken”.
This Wednesday, a massive demonstration filled the Plaza Mayor of the Castilian city to protest against the measure imposed by Vox and initially accepted by the PP to remove aid to NGOs that work with migrants, which led others like Cáritas to reject any help from the Burgos council. The removal of this item from the PP and Vox budgets for 2025 of 119,000 euros leaves the situation of around 7,000 people pending and represents a “social rupture”, explained the president of Accem de Burgos, Gloria Aguilar.
The crisis within the municipality of Burgos was triggered when it was learned that Vox had imposed on the PP the disappearance in the 2025 budgets of the position intended for entities serving the migrant population of the city, which until now was managed by the ACCEM, Burgos Hosts and Intercultural Watchtower organizations. Immediately afterwards, other organizations such as Caritas announced that they would forgo aid from the council if the council did not back down. This Wednesday morning, Mayor Cristina Ayala (PP) indicated that she did not want to “assume” the cost of the absence of municipal accounts for 2025, therefore “for the moment, there is no option to modify the budget.
The City Hall’s decision motivated Unicef, the United Nations children’s agency, to warn Burgos City Hall that the title of “Child Friendly City” was in danger, as recognized this Thursday by the municipal spokesperson, Andrea Ballesteros.
Vox assumes the opposite if the money goes to “legal immigration”
The municipal group of Vox announced a few minutes after the mayor’s appearance that it assumed the withdrawal of the PP, also boasting of its support for the accounts that it considered “a milestone” because “realistic”. Vox acknowledged that the issue of withholding funds from NGOs working with migrants was “an agreement in the draft budgets with our partner” and that “for whatever reason” they will change those budgets.
“There was a draft agreement with Vox but now the PP will modify it,” said vice mayor and spokesperson Fernando Martínez-Acitores. “We, starting from the fact that we are very careful and want the citizens of Burgos to be a reference in terms of coexistence and solidarity and that things take place in accordance with the law and orderly regulation, we are going to carry out a transaction in this meaning. amendment”, he underlined His proposal is to condition that “these elements always refer to legal immigration, to regular immigration”. be allocated to illegal immigration situations. They will ask for control commissions to ensure that “this is indeed the case”. Furthermore, Vox will ask that the same amount allocated to these associations be extended to the notions of “elders, children and youth”. “, declared the spokesperson for Vox, without wanting to specify in response to questions from the press whether the government remains in place. At least until the Finance Committee next Tuesday, they will remain united, even if it does not there is no agreement, “we communicated what we were going to do.
Mayor thanks to Vox
Cristina Ayala reached the position of mayor of Burgos after the municipal elections of May 2023, when thanks to a Vox pact she obtained the support to obtain the position, although during the electoral campaign she had insisted to the PSOE that the list with the most votes be allowed to govern. The PSOE won with 12 councilors but the sum of 11 from the PP and 4 from Vox gave the municipal government to Ayala.
In June this year, Vox tried to get the Burgos municipal police to carry out “periodic inspections, home visits and identity checks” with the aim of detecting “possible cases of illegal registration” , according to the deputy mayor, Fernando Martínez-Acitores. . by spreading the hoax of possible “electoral fraud” in these registrations in addition to emphasizing that “all” the causes are linked “to cases of illegal immigration”. On this occasion, Mayor Cristina Ayala disowned her government partner and recalled that she alone gives orders to the police. Vox’s idea was considered by the Migration Ministry as “interference” in matters that fall under the jurisdiction of the national police and “for xenophobic purposes”.
The departure of Vox from the government of the city of Burgos comes in a context of clash between the PP and Vox in Castile and León after the departure of the far right from the government of Mañueco a few months ago. The two parties also govern in the city of Valladolid, among other municipalities in the community, where new elections must take place no later than February 2026.
