Related news
The fight for immigration led this Friday to the imminent breakdown of the government pact between the PP and Vox in the City Hall of Burgos, the second most populous city that the two parties govern in coalition in Castile and León since the municipal elections of may. 2023.
The formation led by Fernando Martínez-Acitores in the city voted against the 2025 municipal budgets in a tense plenary session this Friday after the withdrawal of the suppression of aid to NGOs that serve immigrants in the city, which the The people initially agreed but eventually corrected it.
The non-inclusion of this initiative, demanded by Vox and which removed 190,000 euros of subsidies to Accem, Burgos Acoge and Atalaya Intercultural, prevented the municipal accounts and the mayor, Cristina Ayala, will expel the councilors from the formation. of Santiago Abascal from his government team.
This Friday’s session was particularly tense and serious faces were the dominant tone, in a debate where reproaches predominated between the two parties which have shared the executive of Burgos City Hall for a year and a half.
“Why do you want to expel us?” Martínez-Acitores asked Ayala, remembering that the addendum they are trying to include “talks about legality.” “It’s a political gesture, there should be no problem,” he said, assuring that the Vox group has received “very hard blows” in recent days.
And he accused Ayala of leaving them “at the mercy of their horses” by saying the NGO budget cuts were “an imposition by Vox”. “They kicked us out, they expelled us,” insisted the Vox spokesperson. For their part, the popular people criticized Vox for saying that the blow had been dealt to the “Burgos society”.
The transfer of the PP
The controversy over this initiative began on November 7, when the people accepted the imposition by Vox to remove aid to NGOs that work with immigrants in the city, Accem, Burgos Acoge and Atalaya Intercultural, with the exception of Cáritas, which refused its grant if the other three did not receive it.
The spokesperson for the government team, Andrea Ballesteros, recognized that the removal of these three collaboration agreements responded to a “request” from Vox to the PP to provide support for municipal budgets for 2025 and assured that, s If he had governed alone, the people would not have promoted the measure.
“We do not agree because these three migratory entities are doing a very good job in the city of Burgos,” he said, adding that “the draft budget is not ideal but it is a negotiation between the two parties and for our part we agree.” we accept so that the budget can move forward.”
Mobilization and rectification
The initiative triggered a wave of indignation in a part of Burgos society, manifested when hundreds of people gathered in the Plaza Mayor of Burgos on November 14, demanding that the government team rectify this decision and showing their support to the NGOs with which they work. immigrants in the city.
During the rally, participants held banners with slogans such as “We are all immigrants”, “No human being is illegal”, “Burgos is multicultural”, “No to budget cuts, yes to coexistence ” or “Government team, you are always on time”, rejecting the decision to reduce aid to these organizations.
A few hours after the demonstration, the PP announced that it was rectifying the measure and the mayor, Cristina Ayala, announced that she would not listen to pressure from Vox and would include positions for Accem, Atalaya Intercultural and Burgos Acoge in the 2025 budgets.
“We will reconsider this decision. We understood that it was necessary to reconsider this decision and that the agreements with the three NGOs remain in the same state as they were in 2024,” Ayala declared, after the Board of Directors. they also expressed support for organizations serving immigrants.
“I saw that it was necessary to rectify this decision, because I am convinced of the work that these associations are doing so that Burgos is more tolerant, diverse and that there is better coexistence,” she added , assuring that the PP had come to “make a better Burgos, without ever confronting it”.
Vox’s response
The next day, the leader of Vox in Castilla y León, Juan García-Gallardo, accused the PP of being “a progressive party” and of “not being trustworthy” for rectifying the cuts to NGOs.
“The PP is not trustworthy, it has no say, it does not represent its voters, it is a more progressive party which participates in the woke agenda, it is in favor of a open borders policy and we do not agree,” he said.
The Vox spokesperson denounced that “uncontrolled immigration” is “one of the biggest challenges that Spanish society faces today and in the years to come.” “We think we have to anticipate that this problem may not have a solution,” he said.
Furthermore, he emphasized that Vox’s main legacy is “consistency and courage.” “In the Cortes we act guided by these principles and we hope that the other positions will do the same,” he concluded.
Just four days after Gallardo’s statements, Vox voted against the PP’s amendment to the budgets at the Burgos City Council Finance Commission, revealing its final vote in Friday’s plenary session, and the coalition government remained even more outstanding.
Graffiti and rupture
The situation became even hotter with the graffiti that appeared on Tuesday on the headquarters of Accem, Caritas, Burgos Acoge and Atalaya Intercultural, with slogans such as “More Valencia and less Nigeria” or “Spaniards first”, and on which swastikas
They were unanimously rejected by all groups and Vox Burgos assured that violence and vandalism “are not the solution to the problems we face as a society.”
The same Tuesday, the provincial president of the PP of Burgos, Borja Suárez, issued an order to his government partner in the capital of Burgos, Vox, and told him that “if he wants to break, let him break”, after his vote against the popular amendment to the Presbytery Finance Commission.
However, the mayor did not lose hope of being able to maintain the agreement and assured this Wednesday that she was working to maintain the government’s agreement with Vox in the city, assuring that it “gives stability”, also announcing that she was in talks. with its partner to negotiate your assumption of responsibility for the accounts.
The spokesperson for Vox and vice-mayor of Burgos, Fernando Martínez-Acitores, assured that his party had resumed negotiations with the PP in view of the debate and vote on the regional budgets this Friday, while assuring that “ if things do not change”, its meaning that the vote against the accounts has been “decided”.
He further assured that “common sense” dictated that if there was no agreement on the approval of budgets, the government pact would be broken.
A prediction by the Vox spokesperson in the city council, which has finally come true since the vote against the budgets, will lead to the inevitable breakdown of the pact between PP and Vox in Burgos after a year and a half of coalition government.
