Valencian Community, Extremadura, the Balearic Islands… And the finishing touch was missing: Aragon. The Popular Party completes the regional record achieved on 28-M and already governs in four enclaves hitherto under socialist rule. Jorge Azcón is from this Thursday the new president of Aragon thanks to one more coalition of the popular and Vox, which in this region also has the support of the PAR.
The day was more than symbolic in the Courts of Aragon, dyed green in honor of San Lorenzo, patron saint of Huesca, on his big day. Azcón will remember it as the day he comfortably achieved a majority to be sworn in: the 28 seats of the PP, added to the seven of Vox and that of Alberto Izquierdo, the PAR deputy, form a solid block that allows the popular to recover the control of Aragon after eight years in opposition and two socialist legislatures with Javier Lambán at the helm.
In a debate in which the rest of the parties showed their position on the new pact of the right, Azcón called to “look to the future” and boasted, as on Tuesday, of the existing harmony with Vox despite their differences. He took the opportunity to rule out any speculation about the transfer of the Ebro, and accused the left of spreading lies in order to destabilize and demonize the new Executive.
With the permission of the Region of Murcia, the Aragonese pact is the government pact between forces of the political right that has taken the longest to move forward. In fact, the new opposition charged Azcón in the investiture debate for having been the slowest candidate to articulate the necessary support: 75 days when he takes office this Friday and becomes one of the main territorial barons of the PP.
The entry of Vox into the Government of Aragon does not please the new opposition either, which is already trying to tie Azcón to its “toxic friends”, as defined by the Chunta Aragonesista (CHA), despite having softened the alliance by including in the equation to PAR. The socialist spokeswoman, Mayte Pérez, warned that the region, because of the tax reduction promised by the PP, will lose 200 million in cuts and will go to the “caboose” of the national economy.
From Podemos, Azcón was blamed for allowing the entry of “ultra-right” and “recentralizing” forces, who seek the end of regional self-government and deny “the pillars of democracy.” IU, for its part, described as “retrograde, liberticidal and denialist” the political agenda that Azcón will carry out from now on. All these parties voted against.
In the four large regions seized from the PSOE, the PP has needed Vox to a greater or lesser extent. The popular Aragonese defend that his agreement with those of Santiago Abascal is closer to the Balearic Islands, despite the fact that Azcón does include members of Vox in his government team. The initial idea of ??the popular in the region was to try to articulate a sufficient majority based on the PAR and Aragón Existe, but it was not enough and finally they had to give entry to Vox.
Specifically, the PP has handed over the Agriculture and Territorial Development portfolios to the group led in autonomy by Alejandro Nolasco. One of them will have the rank of vice-presidency. The PAR, for its part, does not obtain councils but it does obtain five strategic general directorates for the regionalists, who confront each other with Vox and say they have no relationship between them.
In any case, the PP steps on the accelerator after 75 days of complex negotiations with Vox and will arrive at the weekend having already celebrated the inauguration of the president. However, notable questions remain in the air, such as the names of the Vox directors. This is not a minor question, given the complications that those of Abascal are having to select institutional profiles in other regions.
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