Aragón, a coalition that works: four parties and a single government

Maru Díaz (Podemos), Javier Lambán (PSOE), Arturo Aliaga (Aragonés Party) and José Luis Soro (Chunta Aragonesista), last week at the Aragón Government headquarters. Carlos Gil-Roig

There is no week that a storm does not break out in the Government of Spain.

The latest disagreement between Podemos and its partner was over Spain's role in NATO and the holding of the Atlantic Alliance summit in Madrid at the end of the month.

The previous week the minority partner abstained in the audiovisual law of the Executive.

But the left-wing coalition is still there, in La Moncloa, unlike the governments of the PP and Ciudadanos in Madrid, Murcia and Castilla y León, which exploded into the air without completing the legislature, and even Andalusia, which decided to advance elections.

Permanent competition between partners has also become commonplace in the Generalitat de Catalunya between ERC and Junts.

In a country where Castilla-La Mancha and Extremadura —both from the PSOE— and Galicia (PP) are the only communities with a single-color government,

most coalitions survive with periodic strain.

None of this happens in Aragon, where a coalition governs that nobody talks about: the unprecedented quadripartite of the PSOE (24 seats), Podemos (5), Chunta Aragonesista (3) and Partido Aragonés (3).

“Nobody gave a penny for a government with four ideologically diverse political forces, because it was unusual and also with a heterogeneity that ranges from Podemos to a center-right party such as the Aragonese Party (PAR).

But little by little we were showing that the omens of the doomsayers, that we would be a source of instability and uncertainty, were not true”, affirms the president of the hand, the socialist Javier Lambán.

the unprecedented quadripartite PSOE (24 seats), Podemos (5), Chunta Aragonesista (3) and Partido Aragonés (3).

“Nobody gave a penny for a government with four ideologically diverse political forces, because it was unusual and also with a heterogeneity that ranges from Podemos to a center-right party such as the Aragonese Party (PAR).

But little by little we were showing that the omens of the doomsayers, that we would be a source of instability and uncertainty, were not true”, affirms the president of the hand, the socialist Javier Lambán.

the unprecedented quadripartite of the PSOE (24 seats), Podemos (5), Chunta Aragonesista (3) and Partido Aragonés (3).

“Nobody gave a penny for a government with four ideologically diverse political forces, because it was unusual and also with a heterogeneity that ranges from Podemos to a center-right party such as the Aragonese Party (PAR).

But little by little we were showing that the omens of the doomsayers, that we would be a source of instability and uncertainty, were not true”, affirms the president of the hand, the socialist Javier Lambán.

because it was unusual and also with a heterogeneity that ranges from Podemos to a center-right party such as the Aragonese Party (PAR).

But little by little we were showing that the omens of the doomsayers, that we would be a source of instability and uncertainty, were not true”, affirms the president of the hand, the socialist Javier Lambán.

because it was unusual and also with a heterogeneity that ranges from Podemos to a center-right party such as the Aragonese Party (PAR).

But little by little we were showing that the omens of the doomsayers, that we would be a source of instability and uncertainty, were not true”, affirms the president of the hand, the socialist Javier Lambán.

The baron of the PSOE does not hide that his preference to govern was very different.

"I had more or less closed a pre-electoral pact with Ciudadanos, but Albert Rivera retracted that agreement and I looked for another composition of parliamentary majority," summarizes Lambán, who has governed in the community since 2015. The 12 Cs deputies ensured the absolute majority in the Cortes of Aragon, set at 34 deputies.

Rivera's veto originated, without intending it, the unlikely alliance of an Executive where the PAR is the key to the vault.

Without his support, the alternative that added PP (16), Cs (12) and Vox (3) was not viable.

“What a summer of 2019!

They pressured me and demanded that I not agree with the

of Podemos!”, recalls Arturo Aliaga, Vice President and Minister of Industry, of the Aragonese Party.

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The suppression of the autonomies that Vox defends was one of the factors that tipped the balance.

And that is behind an unprecedented coalition.

“We start from this base: let's build Aragon without destroying Spain.

We have maintained the centered position that has allowed us to be moderating governments”, highlights the leader of the PAR, who has alternated coalitions with the PSOE and the PP since the restoration of democracy.

“Before laws than kings”, summarizes Aliaga pulling from a popular saying.

“The coalition was born a little

, everyone assumed that the PAR would swerve to the right.

And yet, there was an exercise of personal responsibility by the four parties to try to understand each other”, shares Maru Díaz, leader of Podemos and Minister of Science and Universities.

“At the beginning there were a lot of misgivings on the part of our militancy and it was difficult to understand.”

Díaz acknowledges that she has had to make concessions on some red lines, such as the school arranged for the PAR.

“Any person who enters to manage is going to assume that they have to ride that type of contradictions, because we are not going to have governments with absolute majorities.

We have signed a contract-program that guarantees the budgetary stability of the public university.

Probably the cost is not facing in this legislature the reduction of educational concerts.

That coalitions are the custom in Aragon does not mean that their management is easy.

To resolve internal frictions, the quadripartite included in its investiture and governance agreement of 132 points the creation of a monitoring and coordination body with the heavyweights of the Executive that meets once a quarter or whenever one of the parties requests it. .

The spokespersons of the four groups meet weekly.

“Of course there are differences.

But with respect, always with great respect.

And with generosity and loyalty.

It is unimaginable that a partner leaks information to pressure or harm another”, explains José Luis Soro, from the Chunta and councilor of Vertebration of the Territory.

An example: his party and Podemos do not support the candidacy with Catalonia to the 2030 Winter Olympics.

The PSOE and the PAR are in favor and close ranks with Lambán, who demands an equitable distribution of the Olympic events.

But on this issue, or on others such as hydrological policy, the differences are not aired or become stabs in the back.

The good atmosphere at the intermediate levels, such as the communication area —just the opposite of what happened, for example, in the Government of PP and Cs in Madrid—, confirms that the coalition is greased and not imposed.

“The opposition tries to exploit the [ideological] contradictions to the maximum with non-law propositions, especially in relation to government policies in Madrid,” observes Lambán.

“We have voted differently and nothing has happened.

Now, all the laws that we have taken to Parliament have come out and we have approved three consecutive Budgets in a timely manner before December 31st.

There have been no surprises in anything that had a minimum relevance”.

"We have been able to naturalize the disagreement," the leader of Podemos seconded him.

“In the first months of the legislature it was very striking that the government partners voted differently in Parliament, but we have naturalized that this was going to happen throughout the legislature.

We had agreed on it that way, because hiding our differences didn't do any of us any favors and because there's also much more that unites us”.

“Governing together we do not have to become the same.

It is a matter of each party continuing to maintain its essence”, the Chunta councilor abounds.

“General interests take precedence over partisan interests.

And then there are times when disagreements are agreed upon”, summarizes Vice President Aliaga.

“Aragón is a land of consensus.

This means that their governments tend to be more moderate and seek balance.

Unlike the national government, with which we do have more discrepancies, with the Aragón government we are very much in tune”, underlines Jesús Arnau, general director of CEOE Aragón.

"The quadripartite has a degree of stability and [social] peace that other autonomous communities would like."

The employers emphasize that very important investments are taking place and the arrival of new companies —such as Novaltia, Montepino and Besins Healthcare—, in addition to the reinvestment of Aragonese companies in the territory.

"That means that there is social peace," adds Arnau.

The Aragonese GDP grew 5.2% in 2021, one tenth more than the Spanish, with a record of exports amounting to 14,425 million euros (7.7% more than in 2020).

The unemployment rate stood at 10.14% of the active population in the first quarter of 2022, 3.5 percentage points below the national average (13.65%), only behind the Basque Country.

Huesca, with 6.77%, is the Spanish province with the lowest unemployment rate.

On the contrary, Aragón is the community with the largest waiting lists for surgery, with an average waiting time of 183 days —a plan has been launched to reduce them by 30 million— and the eleventh in health spending per inhabitant (1,691 euros ).

And it is among the 11 communities that reduced spending on dependency (4.2% less).

It is the Spanish province with the lowest unemployment rate.

On the contrary, Aragón is the community with the largest waiting lists for surgery, with an average waiting time of 183 days —a plan has been launched to reduce them by 30 million— and the eleventh in health spending per inhabitant (1,691 euros ).

And it is among the 11 communities that reduced spending on dependency (4.2% less).

It is the Spanish province with the lowest unemployment rate.

On the contrary, Aragón is the community with the largest waiting lists for surgery, with an average waiting time of 183 days —a plan has been launched to reduce them by 30 million— and the eleventh in health spending per inhabitant (1,691 euros ).

And it is among the 11 communities that reduced spending on dependency (4.2% less).

“The center-right won in Aragón in 2019, the sum of the PP with Cs, Vox and the PAR was enough for a change of government [in the previous legislature PSOE and Chunta governed with the external support of Podemos].

What happens is that the PAR was sold to Lambán: it is not the first time that the PAR has reached an agreement with the PSOE, but what was incomprehensible is that the PAR was part of a government with the Chunta and Podemos.

This political reality, in which they lost the elections but nevertheless govern, makes them more united”, disagrees Jorge Azcón, mayor of Zaragoza and president of the PP of Aragón.

"The PAR preferred to embark on a government with the extreme left," shares Daniel Pérez, regional coordinator and deputy secretary general of Ciudadanos, who insists that Vox would not have been part of the alternative government to Lambán's.

A model like that of Andalusia would have been followed, with the external support of the extreme right.

Pérez claims his opposition "of the State and of total responsibility" in a legislature in which Cs supported the 2020 Budget, in which taxes were not raised, the items for concerted education were increased and an administrative simplification law was approved “clearly liberal”.

The quadripartite government has approved a dozen laws, from the legal health alert regime for the control of the pandemic to the one that regulated the Aragonese supplementary provision of the minimum vital income.

Likewise, eight bills are being processed in the Parliament, such as the one for the Dynamization of the rural environment to combat depopulation.

Pérez claims his opposition "of the State and of total responsibility" in a legislature in which Cs supported the 2020 Budget, in which taxes were not raised, the items for concerted education were increased and an administrative simplification law was approved “clearly liberal”.

The quadripartite government has approved a dozen laws, from the legal health alert regime for the control of the pandemic to the one that regulated the Aragonese supplementary provision of the minimum vital income.

Likewise, eight bills are being processed in the Parliament, such as the one for the Dynamization of the rural environment to combat depopulation.

Pérez claims his opposition "of the State and of total responsibility" in a legislature in which Cs supported the 2020 Budget, in which taxes were not raised, the items for concerted education were increased and an administrative simplification law was approved “clearly liberal”.

The quadripartite government has approved a dozen laws, from the legal health alert regime for the control of the pandemic to the one that regulated the Aragonese supplementary provision of the minimum vital income.

Likewise, eight bills are being processed in the Parliament, such as the one for the Dynamization of the rural environment to combat depopulation.

the allocations for concerted education were increased and a “clearly liberal” administrative simplification law was approved.

The quadripartite government has approved a dozen laws, from the legal health alert regime for the control of the pandemic to the one that regulated the Aragonese supplementary provision of the minimum vital income.

Likewise, eight bills are being processed in the Parliament, such as the one for the Dynamization of the rural environment to combat depopulation.

the allocations for concerted education were increased and a “clearly liberal” administrative simplification law was approved.

The quadripartite government has approved a dozen laws, from the legal health alert regime for the control of the pandemic to the one that regulated the Aragonese supplementary provision of the minimum vital income.

Likewise, eight bills are being processed in the Parliament, such as the one for the Dynamization of the rural environment to combat depopulation.

The tension, unlike the Congress and other parts of Spain, does not seem to be the norm in a tour of the streets of Zaragoza.

“The Government is not my rope, I have not voted for any of its four parties, but I think they are not doing badly.

There is no anger and that is important”, says Pilar Díez, a 61-year-old management technician.

"There is no noise and they reach agreements," says Ana García, a 50-year-old civil servant who voted for the PSOE.

Julián, a taxi driver who prefers not to give his last name, sees the coalition "naturally" and "without concern", for which he has not voted and is more concerned "in case four drops fall and stain the car with mud ”.

Lucía Sánchez, a 71-year-old retiree, is surprised that a smooth coalition is strange: “Here it has always been like this, the tradition is that there are no absolute majorities.

They are forced to agree."

If there is something clear to all the politicians consulted, it is that the future Government of Aragon will be a coalition government.

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