PP and Vox have put an end to their hostilities in Murcia with a government pact that will guarantee the popular Fernando López Miras to emerge unscathed from an investiture whose celebration has been agreed for this Wednesday and Thursday in the Regional Assembly. Both parties, which will thus avoid electoral repetition, are now finalizing the programmatic agreement, that is, the fine print of a pact that will give birth, as Vox demanded, to a coalition Executive.
The agreement also serves to grease the relationship between the two parties at the national level, as it comes just before the meeting between Alberto Núñez Feijóo and Santiago Abascal with a view to the investiture session of the PP leader at the end of September. The president of Vox, in fact, welcomed the new entente reached in Murcia on Monday as an opportunity to open with the popular “a new stage of understanding”, after the disagreement over the PP’s refusal to facilitate Vox’s entry into the Table congressional.
Although in Genoa they frame the agreement sealed in Murcia in the “autonomy” of López Miras, the truth is that the acting president of the Region of Murcia himself has recognized this Monday on Onda Cero that the investiture of Feijóo has weighed in some way on the decision to give in to Vox, which since 28-M has not moved an inch from its position of entering the regional government. The regional leader of the PP has admitted that in order to close the pact with the formation led by José Ángel Antelo in Murcia, the fact that Vox will in turn support the investiture of Feijóo has influenced.
“It does not escape me that the situation in the Region of Murcia would also influence the national situation,” said López Miras. In other words, a total break between the PP and Vox in Murcia could have derailed Feijóo’s own talks with Abascal.
In fact, from Vox it has been pointed out that the one who has moved from its initial position has been the PP, which from the beginning maintained its intention to govern alone despite not having an absolute majority in the Assembly. In the failed investiture session in July, López Miras went so far as to accuse Antelo that the only thing he aspired to was to step on the carpet: “What they want are armchairs and they don’t care about the powers they assume.”
Now, the scenario is different once the general elections have passed and with the investiture of Feijóo on the horizon. For López Miras, the new political moment requires “an exceptional dose of responsibility” to avoid “more blockades” and, above all, the calling of new elections in October. The maximum date to avoid electoral repetition was this September 7. The nine Vox deputies will now vote in favor of López Miras, who is two seats short of an absolute majority, which is at 23.
Three months have taken both parties since 28-M to reach an agreement. The Region of Murcia was the only community pending to form a government after the elections. Finally, it will be a coalition between PP and Vox, as has already happened in the Valencian Community, Extremadura and Aragón, which join Castilla y León. Only in the Balearic Islands has the PP been able to sign a monocolor Executive with the approval of Vox.
In the case of Murcia, the agreement reached means that Vox will occupy the Vice Presidency of the Government -which Antelo will assume, with the powers in Security, Interior and Emergencies-, in addition to managing the Ministry of Development. In any case, López Miras has taken it upon himself to point out that “few things are going to change”, in an attempt to make it clear that the new government’s roadmap will be the one that determines the PP’s program. Both parties agree, yes, in support of agriculture, the defense of water and the unity of the country, as he has stressed.
However, even before the government program was closed, the first frictions between PP and Vox have already been seen. The Mar Menor Law will be one of the issues that will test the strength of the pact, as has already been seen this Monday after the insistence of Abascal’s party to modify a rule that, in his opinion, “criminalizes” productive sectors.
“There is not going to be a step back” in the protection of the Mar Menor, warned López Miras first thing in the morning. From the PP it was later assured that “it has not agreed with anyone” any change in the Law, despite the fact that the Vox spokesman, Antelo himself, insisted that there is an agreement to change the norm and “take steps forward to protect the Lesser Sea”.
