The Statute of Castilla y León celebrates 40 years between tension and breakdown of consensus

The Minister of the Environment of Castilla y León, Juan Carlos Suárez Quiñones, takes a photograph of several members of the Popular Party during the act of celebrating the 40th Anniversary of the Statute of Autonomy of Castilla y León in the Parliament of the region, this Friday in Valladolid.Photogenic/Claudia Alba (Europa Press)

There was a time when the biggest problem in the Cortes of Castilla y León was that the elevators got stuck in the castle of Fuensaldaña (Valladolid) that housed them.

The move to the capital came in 2007 and political peace continued there until in 2019, with the PP-Ciudadanos coalition, signs of anxiety appeared, later turned into a tsunami with the rise of Vox.

The extreme right, which denies the autonomous state, has governed since April with a PP in command since 1987. The autonomous hemicycle has gained decibels and lost consensus, lament six parliamentary figures of different times and colors.

Even the celebrations of the 40th anniversary of the Statute have been tarnished by the disinterest of Vox, which chairs Parliament, and the break between blocks.

The first president of Castilla y León, Demetrio Madrid (PSOE, 1983-1987), the only former socialist president and the only first president of the community who has attended the anniversary ceremony in Parliament this Friday, estimates that the "political tension and Vox's social network" is even more accused in a territory "dismembered, uprooted and provincialized despite its many contributions to the history of Spain."

He appreciates how for years a "more humane, less aggressive and less confrontational" PP and his party "sought consensus without renouncing ideology."

Both he and the other interviewees praise Juan Vicente Herrera, who ruled for the PP between 2001 and 2019 and has declined to participate in this report.

"I am far away ideologically, but I recognize that compared to what is happening now he was a democrat," says Madrid, critical of the fact that the president,

Alfonso Fernández Mañueco (PP), broke with Ciudadanos to embrace the ultras.

José Antonio de Santiago-Juárez knows Herrera well, as he was his right hand.

"It is difficult for the feeling of community to grow in Castilla y León, but Vox takes steps back," analyzes the former senior official, who recalls understandings with the PSOE.

Every February 25, for the anniversary of the Statute, Parliament rewarded public figures and held a special plenary session.

This time, in an unprecedented way, there is no understanding.

Carlos Pollán, president of the Cortes (Vox), ignored the suggestions of the opposition and suggested the Civil Guard.

The other groups, PP included, abstained and Pollán decided to cancel the award.

"It is incoherent to preside over a Parliament without believing in it," sums up De Santiago.

The current socialist leader, Luis Tudanca, is from the "Constitution generation", since he was born in 1978, and grew up with the Statute.

The man from Burgos came to the Chamber in 2015 and with Herrera forged "four great pacts", a line that he believes has been frustrated since the 2019 PP-Cs pact and even more so now with Vox: "The extreme right brings noise, Mañueco put the fox in the chicken coop ,

they want to put an end to the autonomous state and the representation of workers or plurality.

Everything makes an unbreathable climate ”.

Tudanca craves "institutional stability and consensus."

The unions have called a demonstration on the 25th against an Executive that "is perverting democratic legality."

The controversies outrage Rosa Valdeón, vice president with Herrera: "There is a palpable bad environment and involution of political action."

Valdeón evokes the "discrepancies" of 2015, already with the cracked bipartisanship, but never "that irrespirable climate of imposition."

The woman from Zamora warns that "deterioration is not seen in the short term, the problem is social fractures" and admits that in her legislature there were "better or worse things" but that with Mañueco at the helm "this is not the party with which I got engaged."

Francisco Igea, vice president between 2019 and 2021 for Ciudadanos, agreed with the current leader before the electoral advance that gave flight to Vox.

The parliamentarian Ángel Ibáñez (PP), former president of the Cortes and several years a councilor, defines Herrera's actions and the "community pacts" with the PSOE as "useful autonomy".

Ibáñez does not directly quote his partners, but acknowledges that "groups with positions far from the center" make it difficult to understand, "excess noise."

The Government, for him, fulfilled the electoral mandate and "is focused on a pact" despite the "overexcited climate, with debates more in the trenches than in politics that people reproach us with on a day-to-day basis."

The fights between groups have tarnished the acts this Friday in the Cortes.

There Pollán, before former high officials and political and military figures, has delivered a speech on the 40th anniversary of the Statute of Autonomy without citing the words "autonomy" or "autonomous community",

but demanding collaboration "without political filibusters of any kind."

Afterwards, a “wine of honor” with each group at their table.

Without mixing.

Subscribe to continue reading

Read without limits

Keep reading

I'm already a subscriber