“We are going to govern in all three”

The leader of Vox, Santiago Abascal, has insisted 24 hours after the regional elections in Castilla y León that they want to enter the three autonomous governments that are in the air: that of María Guardiola in Extremadura, that of Jorge Azcón in Aragón and, now, also that of Alfonso Fernández Mañueco. Abascal has attacked the negotiations carried out by the PP in these three territories and has targeted Feijóo: “Mañueco says one thing and Feijóo the opposite. Feijóo has had enough of saying that Vox does not want to enter the governments, he does not want to assume the wear and tear (…) I have to tell Feijóo not to worry, that yes, we are going to govern in the three regions. But before facing that, we want a negotiation tailored to measure with deadlines for compliance,” he repeated.

The leader of Vox has been dragging out the dialogue with the PP for months to avoid reaching agreements in the middle of the electoral carousel. Now, he has said again that “the important thing is to know if there is room for an understanding around a government program” and, only when that is fulfilled, will there be talk of joining coalition executives. Questioned by journalists about whether the decision to form coalitions with the PP is firm, Abascal responded: “If there is a programmatic agreement measure by measure, yes. If not, no.”

Feijóo has come out to speak almost at the same time as Abascal from the national headquarters of the PP to criticize the “blockade” of the extreme right and assure that now “it is appropriate” to reach an understanding between both forces. “Either government pacts are made as the majority wants or blocking coalitions are made with Sanchismo,” said the PP leader.

Hours before, the acting president of the Junta de Castilla y León, Alfonso Fernández Mañueco, had indicated that a “good basis” for dialogue with Vox would be the document he signed in 2022 to form a coalition government (and which ended in failure), although he has said that his priority option is a solo executive. “We have to make a project for the future and, by the way, I have to say that a good basis would be the document that we signed four years ago between the PP and Vox,” he said in reference to the pact he signed then with the Vox leader Juan García-Gallardo, through which he acceded to the regional government.

The Vox candidate, Carlos Pollán, has also started his round of interviews this Monday open to negotiating. Pollán seems to have lowered his tone with Mañueco, who on Thursday in the debate and also at the end of the campaign — like Abascal — demanded to apologize for saying that Vox would like to “throw human beings into the sea.” Already at that time, Abascal said that it was “kind of stupid” to make those accusations against Vox when, according to all the surveys, they were going to be key to the government.