The Spanish far-right party VOX reached an agreement this Tuesday with the Partido Popular (PP) to run the Valencian Community, after joining a regional executive in Spain for the first time in 2022 in Castile and León.
The agreement was announced by the leader of VOX in the Valencian Community at a press conference and later confirmed by a communiqué from both parties.
This Tuesday, the two parties also announced an agreement to run the town hall of Elche, a city of 234,000 inhabitants in the Valencian Community (Eastern Spain). This pact between PP and VOX is the first to lead the far right to the executive branch. from one of the country’s 20 largest cities.
These agreements were made taking into account the results of the elections held on May 28 in all Spanish municipalities and in 12 of the 17 autonomous regions, which the PP won in the Valencian Community, albeit without an absolute majority, and which the Socialist Party (PSOE ) had won in Elche, also without an absolute majority.
According to the leader of VOX in the Valencian Community, Carlos Flores Juberías, the agreement will see the far right preside over the regional parliament, while the autonomous executive is headed by Caros Manzón, from the PP.
According to the party leader, this agreement in principle will now be followed by negotiations on the formation of the executive branch and the portfolios that each party will receive.
The leader of VOX in the Valencian Community itself, a university professor of constitutional law who was convicted in 2002 of domestic violence (psychological violence, insults and harassment of his ex-wife), will remain out of government, following statements by PP national leaders who condemned the possibility of your name integrating the executive branch.
According to Carlos Flores Juberías, an agreement has been reached with the PP that will allow a “decisive participation” in the Valencian government for VOX, a party with usual far-right proposals, related to immigration or social rights that are considered security, xenophobic and discriminatory for different groups.
In the statement confirming the agreement, VOX and PP (right) said they wanted a government that “defends and restores the region’s “identity markers”, promotes economic development, strengthens public health and social services and creates greater support for ” promoting the birth rate, security and promotion of families”.
Elections were held on May 28 in 12 of Spain’s 17 autonomous regions and the results were, globally, a defeat for the PSOE and the very left and a victory for the PP, leading the Prime Minister, the socialist Pedro Sánchez, to call early national legislators before July 23.
The PSOE led the governments of nine of the regions going to the polls and was the party with the most votes of the four (Asturias, Canary Islands, Extremadura and Castile La Mancha).
However, he only has the guarantee to continue to govern Castile la Mancha, where he obtained the only absolute majority, and he has already lost the Canary Islands due to an agreement announced last week between the Canary Coalition (CC, regionalist) and the PP, which were the second and third most voted forces respectively.
The PP, on the other hand, obtained two absolute majorities (Madrid and La Rioja) and in five regions depends on the support of other parties in order to govern, expecting to know in which cases it will negotiate or relying on VOX, as already confirmed in the Valencian Community.
The polls in the July 23 general parliamentary elections give the PP another victory, but without the absolute majority it would have obtained with a deal with VOX.
In recent weeks, the left has made the threat of the far right in the Spanish government the main topic of its pre-election campaign.
Spain’s elections were scheduled for December, when the current legislature, which was marked by the first coalition in Spain’s government, was due to end, between the PSOE and the far-left Unidas Podemos platform.
Source: DN
