The “cry” with which the square resounded on Wednesday, where nearly 4,000 people raised their voices against the intention of Burgos City Hall to remove from the 2025 accounts municipal aid to associations that work with immigrants due to the imperative of Vox, Yesterday they brought “reflection” and rectification to the mayor, the popular Cristina Ayala. “This position was in our initial budget proposal and was removed at the request of Vox, but we always thought they were doing fantastic work, networking work that is very difficult to replace,” said the councilor in support the change of position. .
He recognized that “many people” had demanded that the government team reverse its course and that the mobilization called by the three vetoed organizations – Accem, Atalaya Intercultural and Burgos Acoge– It was “very transversal” and “many people from Burgos expressed their disagreement”. So yesterday afternoon, after meeting with his team, Ayala announced that they would maintain this match, despite the order of his partner, to whom he communicated his decision before making it public. He also conveyed it to the leaders of his party: the general secretary, Cuca Gamarra, and the presidents of the PP of Castilla y León, Alfonso Fernández Mañueco, and of Burgos, Borja Suárez, present at the press conference.
For Ayala, the rectification corresponds to a question of “responsibility after reflection, speaking with NGOs, with neighbors who approached and after this demonstration”, also called Cáritas, to whom the aid was not intended to be deleted, but who had already suggested that he would reject it if the cut was applied to the others. A change of position, he added, “so that Burgos is more tolerant, more diverse and there is better coexistence.”
“I am convinced that all those who gave me their support in May 2023, as well as those who did not give me their support for one reason or another, want us to reverse this decision,” he said. she declared, convinced that “it would be ridiculous for 119,000 euros – the total amount of aid amounts to 250 million – endangers an exceptional city project, as proposed in the 2025 budgets. Her wish counts given the minority of the PP, is to continue to govern with Vox until the end of its mandate And, he stressed, it is difficult to get along with the PSOE when “they do not agree. about nothing and oppose everything, which makes it almost impossible to talk to them, because they even disrespect the city councilors and the mayor.”
The other part of the coalition, Vox, does not seem in principle to seek a break – if necessary, it must consult at national level – and its intention is to continue in the government team which it joined in June 2023. Although Of course, they already have new requests submitted for these budgets. And to achieve them, they will take advantage of the path that the PP will open with the amendment to the draft Accounts which will be debated next Tuesday in the Finance Commission.
If at that time the people present theirs to recover aid from NGOs, Vox will initiate another transaction in which it will require monitoring and control so that all the funds that the City Hall allocates to these organizations are intended for “legal immigrants”. That not a single euro will return to the “illegals”, said the deputy mayor, Fernando Martínez-Acítores, during another appearance, accompanied by the rest of the party councilors.
Although they have not yet fully defined their demand, they said they would demand the same amount that will be spent on immigration aid NGOs is intended for the municipal sectors of children, the elderly and young people.
Those of Santiago Abascal hoped that their requests would be approved, although Martínez-Acítores acknowledged that they did not have an agreement on this and that they had not made a decision on their position in case their proposals would be rejected.
The mayor also expressed her conviction that the amendment to recover this aid “will be approved” and her desire to see the accounts completed, the processing schedule of which is maintained, November 22 being the day of the verdict in plenary. If he doesn’t get support, Ayala stressed that he will try to do so by asking a trust question. “The PP in this City Hall has come to add, to make a better city, a better Burgos, without ever confronting each other and, therefore, the mayor’s decision will be to go back,” defended Ayala.
