Moreno, elected president of Andalusia with the abstention of Vox

Juan Manuel Moreno has found this Thursday with a gift in his investiture: 13 Vox deputies have abstained in his election as president of the Andalusian Government, despite not needing any external support as he did three and a half years ago.

Moreno has been elected in the first vote by an absolute majority with the support of the 58 deputies of his group and the vote against of the 30 socialist deputies, the five of the group of Por Andalucía and the two of the deputies of Adelante Andalucía.

Vox, faithful to its short history in the Andalusian Parliament of not revealing the meaning of its vote, has kept its decision secret until the president of the Chamber, Jesús Aguirre, has begun to call the deputies to express their opinion.

A Vox deputy has not cast a vote.

For the PP it has not been any surprise.

“They cannot vote against because it would be to insist on the error of the campaign”, a popular leader has interpreted.

The same day that the Parliament was constituted, the popular ones gave up a seat on the Parliamentary Table so that Vox, the third political force, would have representation in the governing body.

Moreno denied that this gesture implied an agreement with the extreme right, although he did demand support for initiatives from his Executive.

The return of the favor has come ahead of time, despite having up to three yeses left for Moreno to be elected by an absolute majority in the first vote.

A sense of the vote that when it was her turn to pronounce it, the leader of Vox, Macarena Olona, ​​has described it with a big smile of “affectionate attention”.

On the second and last day of the investiture debate, Moreno has offered pacts and agreements to all the opposition groups, both to his right and to his left.

"I want to talk to everyone and about everything," said the Andalusian president, who since the very election night of June 19 erased the words "absolute majority" from his vocabulary.

The current context of the inflationary and energy crisis has flown over all the interventions of this day, both those of the spokespersons of the opposition groups and the replies of Moreno, who has not hidden his concern about the evolution of the economy as of autumn .

“It is going to be a very complicated legislature.

I continue to believe in the possibilities of an agreement”, he told the whole of Parliament.

The popular leader himself already conveyed that concern to his own when at the board of directors of his party, held at the end of June and in full hangover from the electoral victory, he warned them that "complicated times" were coming.

With nuances, both the PSOE, Vox and the two leftist coalitions have offered him economic agreements to combat the rise in prices and its effect on Andalusian families.

The spokesman for the Socialists, Juan Espadas, has offered a pact to fight against the consequences of rising prices and the Ukraine crisis;

that of the ultra formation, Macarena Olona, ​​has urgently demanded measures and that of the Por Andalucía, Inmaculada Nieto, a monographic debate to agree by law on specific proposals in this regard.

Swords calls to reach agreements with the PSOE

The popular candidate for the presidency of the Junta de Andalucía, Juan Manuel Moreno, addresses the PSOE-A spokesman, Juan Espadas, in the second session of the investiture plenary session in the regional Parliament. Alejandro Ruesga

The debate has meant the debut of Swords as president of the socialist group and leader of the opposition.

He has demanded that Moreno show his "moderate and endearing" attitude and reach agreements with the PSOE.

Up to five pacts have offered Swords to the popular president (in economic matters, management of European funds, financing and public services, environment and social exclusion), and he has extended his hand to go together in the "defense of general interests ” of Andalusia against Europe and the central government.

Swords, as he did during the campaign, has defended the policies approved by the Government of Pedro Sánchez and has demanded that Moreno implement some measures such as the public transport subsidy with the Andalusian budget.

"Have you come to undertake some things that we left, or for what?" He snapped.

At times, the socialist leader has worn the jacket of mayor of Seville, a position from which he resigned in January this year to be a candidate for the Board, to exhibit his management experience.

In his speech, the complaint about the lack of coordination between the Board and the municipalities was constant and, perhaps expecting an attack from Moreno for the "inheritance received" from the 37 years of socialist mandates, he assured: "He cannot fight the mistakes of others in a defense to do nothing.”

But Moreno, contrary to what he did in his first inauguration speech in 2019, has already passed that screen.

At least for the moment and in the two days of debate he has not taken refuge in the management of the Socialists to justify his own lack of management.

The reminder has been made by the PP spokesman, Toni Martín, to accuse the PSOE of using its absolute majorities as "absolutists".

Although between Moreno and Espadas there have been several questions and the debate between them has been fluid, with whom the popular leader has been most decisive has been with the Vox spokeswoman.

Olona -who has shown a friendlier face in his first intervention and a more histrionic one in the second, when he has defended Vox's postulates as inalienable conditions to give his support to Moreno's policies- has questioned "the enthusiasm and complacency" of the speech by the Chairman of the Board —“there was no urgency in his words or specific deadlines”, he has reproached him in relation to the inflationary crisis— and for this reason he has asked for urgent measures to combat the rise in prices.

A request to which Moreno has responded in a very direct and forceful way, reminding him that his formation did not vote in favor of the 2022 budgets that included those shock measures that Olona demanded.

"When a political party ceases to be useful and electoral calculations and ambitions outweigh the interests of citizens, the political party ends."

If Moreno postulated himself in his investiture speech as a president who was going to use his absolute majority —”new majority”, he calls it— to “represent and work for each and every one of the 8.5 million Andalusians, without differences nor exceptions”, the spokespersons for the two leftist coalitions, Teresa Rodríguez, first, for the mixed group Adelante Andalucía, and Inmaculada Nieto, second, representing Por Andalucía, have made it clear to her that there is an abyss between the vision of the problems that the community has and above all about the solutions to solve them.

Both have recognized Moreno for opting for dialogue instead of applying the roller of the absolute majority - "from dissent we can reach robust agreements", Nieto has pointed out -, to go on to criticize the tax reduction announced the day before by the popular leader, have questioned the situation of Public Health —which, given the decline in its quality due to saturation, forces citizens to take out private insurance, have agreed—, have criticized the new financing model for public universities and have called for the attention on the reduction of lines in educational centers when the birth rate is declining.

Both Rodríguez and Nieto have warned about the weight of the tourism industry in the GDP of the community and have appealed for "diversification" to avoid "perpetuating underdevelopment",

The president of the Junta de Andalucía, Juanma Moreno, is congratulated by the leader of the Andalusian PSOE, Juan Espadas, after being sworn in again this afternoon as head of the regional government. Alejandro Ruesga

Both have also made Moreno ugly that in his speech yesterday he ignored the endemic poverty of the community, where 38% of Andalusians live at risk of exclusion.

A criticism to which Swords has also joined in his intervention, Nieto has demanded that the new Government make the approval of a plan to eradicate it a priority.

The president has justified that he did not specifically address the issue of poverty in that in a speech lasting more than an hour not all issues can be addressed - "I do not want to be called the Andalusian Castro", he ironically alluded to the endless speeches of the late president of Cuba - and that he already referred to the "most vulnerable people".

and has not achieved it.

"This requires the effort of all administrations," Moreno stressed.

The appeals to dialogue and the correct and moderate tone have been the protagonists of this plenary session.

A cordial tone, which Moreno himself has recognized at the exit of the plenary session and that it suits all parties at this time and after the overwhelming majority of the PP.

But no one forgets that there are municipal and general elections on the horizon that will generate tension between all groups.