2023-08-06 18:15:13
Aragon, in the north-east of Spain, becomes the fourth region of the country where the extreme right comes to power as part of a coalition signed on August 4 with the right-wing People’s Party (PP) . It has been following the path of Castile and Leon since last year and the autonomous region of Valencia as well as Extremadura, where similar agreements were concluded in the wake of the municipal and regional elections of May 28.
Vox at the head of four autonomous parliaments
Arrived in the lead, but without an absolute majority in Aragon (north-eastern Spain) during this election, the People’s Party has no choice but to seal a coalition pact with Vox to avoid new local elections. The agreement of August 4 grants the presidency of the regional government to the People’s Party (PP), while Vox will lead two ministries: that of agriculture and that of territorial development and justice.
In the four regions where a PP-Vox coalition now reigns, the People’s Party has given three vice-presidencies and seven ministries to Vox, with competences in industry, employment, interior, culture, tourism, sports, agriculture, livestock, forest management, land use planning and depopulation. The far-right party also holds the presidency of four autonomous parliaments.
It was following the ballot for local elections on May 28, marked by a rout on the left, that the socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez called for early legislative elections on July 23, where the left-wing parties, to the surprise general, have succeeded in « reassembled » without, however, achieving a majority.
Vox lost MPs on July 23
Paradoxically, the PP-Vox agreements could cost the PP dearly, since in the absence of an absolute majority, it must find other allies to form a government. This is probably the reason why Vox declared on Sunday August 6 that she would support a possible inauguration of the leader of the Conservatives as Prime Minister without setting any conditions, in other words without demanding to return to government.
It is true that on reading the results of the election on 23rd July, Vox was not a worthy ally since it lost its feathers during these legislative elections, going from 52 deputies to 33 deputies. The association of the PP with the extreme right, which denies gender-based violence and climate change, was decisive on the evening of July 23, playing in favor of a remobilization of the left, estimates the Financial Times. According to the Ipsos institute, during the campaign, “70% of the undecided”of those who said they were going to vote but did not know for whom, “were women”. “Sanchez’s best ally has been Vox”, notes Juan Manuel Moreno Bonilla of the PP and head of government of the Andalusian community. It was in this region that Vox made its first entry into a Spanish parliament in December 2018, with 12 deputies.
The prospect of seeing the far right come to power may have dampened those who, dissatisfied with the management of the Socialist Party and its alliances with the independence parties, could have given their vote to the leader of the Popular Party, Alberto Nunez Feijoo, Vox actif like a scarecrow. Despite this observation, the PP persists in signing local pacts with the party of Santiago Abascal while, obviously, these alliances reduce its chances of negotiating its investiture with other political formations.
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