The internal and institutional crisis of Vox in the Balearic Islands threatens to affect other institutions on the islands where the far-right governs with the PP.
This Monday, five deputies expelled the president of the party, Patricia de las Heras, and the president of the Parliament, Gabriel Le Senne, from the parliamentary group, which caused the national leadership of Vox to request the party's guarantees committee to expel them. five deputies, who have been left with control of the parliamentary group.
The crossroads that the president of the regional government now faces, the popular Marga Prohens, who governs with the parliamentary support of Vox, involves two options and neither is good: relying on the five wayward ones who give her the numerical majority, risking anger the national leadership of the ultra party or opt for the two deputies expelled from the parliamentary group by their colleagues and who do not allow them to gain sufficient support.
The PP has 25 regional deputies, the same as the entire left—PSOE, Més per Mallorca, Més per Menorca and Podemos—together, while the rest of the parliamentary arc is made up of the five deputies whom Vox wants to kick out of the party, the two expelled this Monday who will become non-attached deputies, the former Vox deputy who left the party in October and the Formentera representative whom his party, Sa Unió, a coalition of PP and Compromís on the island, kicked out of the party after to denounce that he had blackmailed the president of the regional government.
Only the agreement with the five wayward Vox deputies would allow Prohens to continue approving his proposals because, otherwise, he would be at the mercy of specific agreements with left-wing groups.
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Vox insists that there is no internal crisis, but admits the “dangerous situation” in the Balearic Islands
This Tuesday, the vice president of Vox, Ignacio Garriga, issued a warning in an interview on RNE in which he stated that the popular leader faces an uncertain and irregular legislature “because she is at the mercy of the decisions of five people who have shown that "They are exclusively motivated by personal ambitions."
Meanwhile, Prohens continues to stick to the speech that he has been offering since the crisis broke out, ensuring that it is not a problem that affects the regional government, but is limited to Parliament.
“There is no news that implicates the Government and we continue to ask for responsibility and we continue to ask that this situation that affects the Balearic Parliament be resolved as soon as possible.
“It is an internal crisis within Vox and in the face of an internal crisis in a political party that is not mine, I have absolutely nothing to say,” he said in statements to the media in Formentera.
Despite his refusal, the situation becomes complicated at times.
The PP governs in the Consell de Mallorca together with Vox, which joined the government team of the island institution and, in fact, holds the vice presidency.
In Palma, Mayor Jaime Martínez, of the PP, governs thanks to the support that Vox councilors give him in plenary sessions after reaching a programmatic agreement.
The tandem between both parties also extends to the Consell de Menorca, plunged into a crisis after the president of the institution, the popular Adolfo Vilafranca, dismissed in November the only
Vox
councilor who allowed him to have a majority.
In municipalities such as Calvià and Marratxí, both parties govern.
Legal report
The institutional schism opened a new chapter this Tuesday with the refusal of the President of Parliament, Gabriel Le Senne, to leave his position without having favorable legal reports from the Chamber's lawyers.
This Wednesday the convocation of the Parliament Board is scheduled, composed of Le Senne, two deputies from the PP and two others from the PSOE, who will process the request of the Vox parliamentary group to expel Le Senne and his partner De las Heras.
“We are looking in depth at the situation and we are going to request legal reports on the matter because we are seeing that the issue is complicated,” said Le Senne.
And the last reform of the Chamber's regulations was made in 2016 taking into account the opposite case, which affected the then president of the Podemos Parliament, Xelo Huertas, who was first expelled from the party and then from the parliamentary group.
“Now the situation is the opposite,” Le Senne stressed, since “those loyal” to the party have been expelled from the group and “the rebels” have remained inside.
Le Senne has announced that he will meet with the members of the Chamber Board to try to reach an agreement that will allow him to catch some air and remain in office until, at least, he has a legal report.
Meanwhile, the five deputies who control the parliamentary group have insisted that they are still part of Vox and have reached out to the national leadership to redirect the situation.
The group's deputy spokesperson, Sergio Rodríguez, has stressed that his intention has never been to leave the party and has issued a warning to the national leadership, pointing out that "the ostrich policy has never solved any problem."
The deputy explained that the first division came with the negotiation with the PP of the linguistic segregation plan, which led to the departure of the deputy for Menorca Xisco Cardona.
According to Rodríguez, the party leadership in Madrid tried shortly after to get the deputies to open a new political front for 25% of teaching hours in Spanish.
A week ago the party sent a press release to the media with some “inflammatory statements” by the president of Vox in the Balearic Islands about the language “that seemed like they wanted to blow up the agreement.”
“It was the straw that broke the camel's back,” said Rodríguez, who also accused De Las Heras of “absolute lack of leadership.”
The expulsion of Le Senne has come, according to Rodríguez, due to his status as a member of the Provincial Executive Committee and his participation in the initiative, in addition to accusing him of being absent from the meetings of the parliamentary group, alleging that his position as president of the Chamber exempted him. to participate in everyday life.
“Le Senne will know what guidelines he wants to follow and to what extent he can cast himself in this position,” he said about the intention of the President of Parliament to continue in his position until he has legal reports on the situation.
Despite the storm surge, Rodríguez wanted to send a message of calm to the PP, ensuring that they will continue to guarantee governability in the Balearic Islands.
“We are faithful to what the PP signed with Vox, we are going to maintain ourselves on all points, there are no new negotiations or different demands.
Stability and governability in the Balearic Islands is absolutely guaranteed, we are not considering any more electoral scenarios in the near future than those that are already called," he stressed.
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