The acting president of the Junta de Castilla y León, Alfonso Fernández Mañueco, upon his arrival at a meeting of the Executive Committee of the Popular Party this Monday in Madrid.Eduardo Parra - Europa Press (Europa Press)
Not to the PSOE.
The acting president of Castilla y León, Alfonso Fernández Mañueco (PP), announced this Wednesday that the round of contacts with the parties towards the investiture will again meet with Vox, but not with the Socialists, whose party he accuses of "excluding himself". ” despite the fact that it was the representatives of the PP who left the negotiation table 15 minutes after the start, when the PSOE mentioned corruption.
The statement came after the analysis of the PP's steering committee in the community of the results of the round of contacts with all the parties represented in the Cortes after the early elections on February 13.
Discarded the PSOE, the 31 prosecutors that the PP has - the absolute majority is encrypted in 41 seats - makes the numbers only fit with the 13 of Vox.
Mañueco will not be seen again with Unidos Podemos, opposed to the PP line;
Ciudadanos, who rejects that Mañueco enters into the political calculation;
and For Ávila, who resigned from the meeting with the PP because Mañueco was not going to attend.
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The future Government of Castilla y León is still up in the air after the first contacts between parties
“First the program and the people of Castilla y León”, has reiterated Mañueco, who has summoned to “work to bring positions closer together towards a program that allows the community to continue growing”.
The president has said he is "optimistic" and has recalled something that he has been asserting for weeks: that he has "his hands free and an open mind" towards any electoral alliance.
Vox has made its potential support subject to entering the institutions, something that the acting president has neither confirmed nor denied, nor has he ruled on whether the PP will present a candidate for the Table of the Cortes, whose configuration is chosen on the 10th of March and will determine if there are options for Vox to enter senior positions in the Chamber or the Courts.
"The objective is a solitary government but I insist that the fundamental thing is to talk about the people and legislature pacts and agreements," said Mañueco, who in terms of an alliance with the extreme right has considered that "that door is not even closed nor is it open, we are working on an agreement based on a program that prevents second elections”.
The slogan, he insists, is not to repeat elections "unless all [the other parties] are convinced of it."
The regional leader faces the challenge of becoming the first president to govern in coalition with the extreme right.
Since he learned of his insufficient victory in the elections, Mañueco has insisted on trying to govern alone, although he lacks numbers for it, so he would need abstentions.
Vox has reiterated that it will only give its approval to the PP if it obtains a presence on the Board in return and cites as a model agreement the one sealed in 2019 between Mañueco and Ciudadanos, a formation that then obtained 12 attorneys, one less than those of Juan García-Gallardo, Vox's candidate, now.
Therefore, the formation understands that it must obtain a similar number of positions in the Executive: Cs held a vice presidency, four ministries, the presidency of the Cortes and the spokesperson.
The PP argues that this time they have been the most voted force —while in 2019 it was the PSOE— and that, therefore, they must occupy important positions such as the presidency of the Table of the Cortes, which will be resolved on March 10 and it will serve to clarify if there are signs of a PP-Vox pact.
García-Gallardo has offered his support to Mañueco, but he has refused to offer it without asking for anything in return.
Mañueco has tended to his potential partners by refusing to classify them as far-right or by not censoring xenophobic statements by this party.
Again now Mañueco, has declined this Wednesday to brand his possible investiture partners as "extreme right".
He, he affirms, feels "comfortable" agreeing "with the people of Castilla y León" according to the "PP program", so that he does not end up excluding Vox from the electoral equation.
The Castilian and Leonese leader thanked "the important effort" of his Galician counterpart, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, by presenting his candidacy to lead the national PP, this Wednesday.
Mañueco has recently insisted that Feijóo is a "moral reference" and that he has the backing of four absolute majorities, a political milestone "that can be counted on the fingers of one hand."