Two and a half years later, we are where I thought it would be most reasonable: a government alone with precise agreements in Parliament. With more calm than one might expect after the “inexplicable decision” of “the national leadership of Vox” to break the coalition with the PP in Castilla y León, the President of the Council, Alfonso Fernández Mañueco, opened yesterday without the slightest nostalgia or symptom of anxiety, “a new political stage” which, as he has repeated on several occasions, will be based “on dialogue with everyone” with the challenge of “designing the future of Castilla y León while managing the present of our Community.”
In his now classic speech in the gardens of the regional government headquarters after the summer holidays, he defended that the journey begins with a “solid and stable” executive that “intends to exhaust the legislative power” Even if there is no agreement to approve the 2025 budgets, he has for now expressed his willingness to present them “in a timely manner” – that is, before October 15 – with the certainty of obtaining sufficient support. Without naming anyone in particular, he clarified that before the break with Vox, “we had taken important steps” with negotiations that “could allow” to obtain support “more easily”, although, just yesterday, the national leader of the radical right party Santiago Abascal complicated this option a little more by guaranteeing that the accounts would not be approved in the communities where they governed unless changes were seen in policies related to immigration, the 2030 Agenda and gender.
In any case, and as a sign that he wants – or should – make dialogue his standard, Fernández Mañueco announced yesterday a series of meetings with all the parliamentary groups that would be held “immediately after” the plenary session of the Cortes next week to “seek agreements with the Community in mind. In the opinion of the highest regional leader, “it is time to know who wants to be useful to this country or who follows the strategies of their parties.” With the certainty – not very convincing – that “they have enough room to make decisions from Castilla y León”, he stressed that he had “free rein to govern and reach agreements with everyone.”
Regarding what will be discussed during these meetings, which should be held “in a single day” starting logically with the PSCL, he highlighted the complicated health situation, but also considered it “important” that a timetable could be “agreed” for these key infrastructures “for the development of our Community”. “It is not a closed agenda” and it will also serve to know the possibilities of “debating” and bringing together positions on the budgets.
Waiting for the bridge
This dialogue displayed by Fernández Mañueco would also be transposed into the agreements with unions and businessmen, with employers’ organizations, with the Regional Federation of Municipalities and Provinces, as well as with rectors and social entities. We “also maintain our request” to hold meetings with ministers who “have not yet responded to our requests.” Among them, special mention goes to the leaders of Transport – Óscar Puente de Valladolid – and Industry – the Catalan Jordi Hereu -.
Asked by journalists about what will happen to the issues agreed with Vox, such as the proposal for the Concorde Law, the president went off on a tangent, but he wanted to affirm that what was signed with his former partner was “a government pact without demands from either political party”, but that there was an “understanding”. Now, as he defended it, “the priority” of fulfilling the commitments “that I acquired” in the Debate on the general policy of the Community to conclude by stressing that “we will do everything that is beneficial for Castilla y León and we will see the problems and move forward”. After reiterating his “intention” to exhaust the legislative power and acknowledging that it was useful to have recently approved the accounts, he insisted once again that it is possible to present the budget on time recognizing that in other years, what “seriously delayed it” was the failure of the government to provide “fundamental” economic data, which in this exercise “has already been provided”. He did not say much else about the main Community law that provides for a further reduction in the regional section of the personal income tax.
