The mayor of Burgos, the “popular” Cristina Ayala, expelled the four Vox councilors from the government team during this Friday’s plenary session after rejecting the budgets which provided for aid to NGOs working with Burgos. The Burgos PP lost the vote on its 2025 accounts and displays its break with Vox. “We did not reject them, they decided not to approve the budget,” said Cristina Ayala, who thanked one by one the work and efforts of Vox advisors over the last year and a half.
“We regret that today four councilors have not given their support to the budget and this implies a considered decision not to want to continue being part of this government team,” declared the “popular” mayor during the plenary session, which is still taking place, and which only intervened at this stage of the debate once the vote had taken place and the two amendments from the Socialist group – which called for the reestablishment of cooperation aid development and exhumations and the work of democratic memory – were rejected to such an extent that they were eliminated last year – and the 2025 budgets.
The four NGOs found themselves at the center of the political debate after Vox and PP negotiated the withdrawal of subsidies intended for these NGOs which help with the integration of immigrants – with the exception of Cáritas, which refused to accept them if they had to be exclusive – which ultimately led to the PP withdrawing from the 2025 budgets after a massive demonstration last week.
Mayor Cristina Ayala chose to “modify the route of the compass by a few degrees” and to govern from Monday in a minority “with the same enthusiasm and the same honesty”.
“It was neither fair, nor reasonable, nor intelligent, nor acceptable, nor humanitarian to leave without any assistance three entities that collaborate with the municipality of Burgos,” said Ayala, who also criticized the socialist group for its “no » systematic.
Cristina Ayala regretted that in Burgos these 119,000 euros for NGOs working with migrants – in a budget of 250 million euros – have meant this pause while in other municipalities this type of aid is maintained. “I couldn’t convince them. In the Provincial Council, Vox Burgos voted in favor of a budget that provided an allocation to one of the vetoed NGOs here. This rectification did not seem so complicated,” protested Cristina Ayala.
The “popular” councilor assured that the elimination of this 119,000 euro position was a “mortal wound” for NGOs, which “contribute to making Burgos a more inclusive, tolerant, diverse and prosperous city”, a decision initially supported by the PP but which Ayala described as a “mistake” that they were ready to “rectify”.
It remains to be seen if (and when) Cristina Ayala poses a question of confidence or if she extends the 2024 budgets; since a motion of censure is not on the table, because the socialist group would need the support of Vox and this is not an option for any of the parties.
Expanding
