There will be a PP government with the extreme right of Vox in Aragon. As has already happened in the Valencian Community and Extremadura, they will do so in a coalition after both parties closed an express negotiation since the deadlines were running out and the ghost of electoral repetition -an option that did not interest either of them- began to take shape It was not the formula desired by the president of the popular Aragonese, Jorge Azcón, but it was the only possible formula. The seven Vox deputies were essential so that the PP, with 28, could form an absolute majority, which in Aragon stands at 34. This agreement has resulted in a vice-presidency and two councils for Vox: Alejandro Nolasco will be vice-president and, at At the same time, it will also manage the Ministry of Depopulation and Justice; At the moment it is unknown who will be in charge of the Ministry of Agriculture and Territorial Development, which will also be in the hands of the far-right party.
More than two months after the regional and municipal elections on May 28 that won Jorge Azcón, the Popular Party candidate for the Government of Aragon, his investiture will take place thanks to the support of Vox. Throughout these months the situation has been very opaque, with some messages from Vox accusing the PP of its lack of contact and Azcón’s secrecy awaiting the result of the general elections on July 23.
Finally, Azcón has had to give in to the inflexible position of Santiago Abascal’s party: either a government coalition is formed or there was no agreement. And the conservative leader has had no other option than to accept the conditions imposed by the far-right party, which has gone from having an irrelevant role in the autonomous community in the last legislature to taking over the main Aragonese institutions, sitting on the Governing Council and in the Presidency of the Cortes. In addition, his vote is also essential in the city of Zaragoza so that the PP can carry out its policies.
The pact with Vox began to be forged on June 23, when Marta Fernández, who until then had been a Vox deputy, was appointed as President of the Parliament of Aragon. This appointment acquired national relevance due to Fernández’s statements, that on her social networks (deleted a few hours after the appointment was made public) she published messages of transphobia, xenophobia, religious fanaticism, climate denial or anti-feminism. After the appointment, Azcón’s rapprochement with Vox seemed evident, although the PP during these months have maintained that their intention was to govern alone and have the support of other parties for the investiture.
However, from Vox they have maintained at all times that their intention was to enter the government, which has finally happened. The negotiation has been closed in the last hours as the pressure in the popular ranks grew and the anger of Vox increased, dissatisfied with the direction that the talks were taking and the slow progress. A few warnings from the national leadership, especially from the national vice president and one of the people who has supervised the entire process, Jorge Buxadé, have been enough to close an agreement that will include various councils. Finally, it has been the vice presidency, for Alejandro Nolasco, and the ministries of Agriculture and Territorial Development, Depopulation and Justice.
The insufficient pact with Teruel Exists and PAR
Until the last moment, Azcón has tried an impossible pact that would include Teruel The PAR already exists. With three and one deputy, respectively, neither of the two formations were enough to grant an absolute majority to the PP, who felt more comfortable governing with them. While Teruel Existe has ruled out supporting a government with Vox from the beginning and has proposed disconcerting formulas such as forming an “Aragonese” government between them, the PP and the left-wing nationalist formation Chunta Aragonesista, the PAR has not closed the door on participating in a government with Vox, despite the fact that they are ideologically separated by aspects as relevant in Aragon as the regional model and hydraulic policy, especially the transfer of the Ebro that supports the ultra-right and to which the Aragonese Party strongly opposes. However, Azcón’s commitment to a minority government between the PP, Teruel Existe and the PAR was always a siren song and an impossible option, despite the fact that it has been used continuously to deny what was obvious: any agreement would pass for having Vox, and having enough weight in an autonomous government.
Everything indicated at the beginning of July that the agreement was practically closed, although the meetings to outline it cooled down due to the general election campaign on July 23 and much more after the results, in which Vox suffered a sharp drop in votes and in which the national PP saw how it ran out of real options to form a government in Spain, something they took for granted. Despite the fact that until now the PP has never censored the most ultra-conservative positions of Vox and has used its opposition discourse, now there is concern about what will be the way of acting of its new partner in an unprecedented coalition in the autonomous community and which will face the opposition of numerous parties that are represented in the Parliament of Aragon (PSOE, CHA, Podemos, IU and to a lesser extent Teruel Existe and the PAR, which have agreed with the PP in the Teruel Provincial Council, an institution considered strategic for both formations).
Source: www.eldiario.es
